EXL cuts Nasdaq IPO size

Domestic BPO major EXL Service has cut down the size of its proposed IPO on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange by 20 per cent, notwithstanding the recent interest generated in overseas listings due to WNS' successful IPO on the NYSE and offshore-ringing of opening bell by Infosys.

The New York-based EXL Service Holdings, the parent company of pure play BPO firm EXL Service operating through various delivery centres in Noida and Pune, said in an amended regulatory filing with the US Securities Exchange Commission(SEC) in Washington, that it expects to raise upto $ 60 million from the proposed IPO.

Previously, the company had said in its SEC filing it plans to raise upto $75 million from the IPO. The company had first filed its prospectus for a Nasdaq listing in December 2004 and it was the first pure play BPO firm from India to file for a listing in the US.

EXL would be the second pure play BPO company from India to list in the US after WNS, which raised about $ 224 million from a successful IPO earlier last week.

WNS had priced the issue of 11.2 million American Depository Shares at 20 dollars per ADS, the higher end of the projected price band of 18 dollars to 20 dollars. The final IPO price was above expectations and the issue was oversubscribed by more than 10 times.

WNS Holdings' market capitalisation rose to nearly 1,000 million dollars on the very first day of its listing on NYSE, following a surge of nearly 23 per cent in its share price above the IPO price of 20 dollars.

The analysts said that the reduction in EXL's IPO size might have been due to the ongoing weakness in the Nasdaq stock market and overall weak market sentiments globally.

However, WNS had defied this trend with its IPO, which became the only issue in the month of July to be priced at the upper end of the IPO price band.

EXL did not mention in its SEC filing any reason for the reduction in its IPO size.