Biyani plans more IPOs

The Pantaloons group of Kishore Biyani could be raising capital through other group companies in the near future and the current IPO of Future Capital Holdings Limited (FCHL) with an initial public offering which opened on January 11, 2008, was not the last.

The group would invest in two local, city-based consumer facing entities, said Kishore Biyani, managing director of the Future Group..

"We are in talks with two local companies regarding possible investment in their business and the formalities are expected to be completed in a couple of months," he said.

The group would add six Bigbazaar outlets in West Bengal out of which four would be in Kolkata and one each at Siliguri and Burdwan. The FCHL issue was subscribed 2.38 times on the opening day. The company was offering 6,422,800 equity shares of Rs 10 each with price band of Rs 700-Rs 765 per share.

The issue would close January 16.

"Our issue received bids for 1.52 crore shares on the opening day, according to the data from the NSE," said Biyani.Kishore Biyani, managing director of the Future Group.

FCHL, the financial financial services arm of the Future Group, would be raising Rs 490 crore through the issue which would be spent mostly for expansion of the retail financial services.

"We would use the proceeds for expansion of Future Money outlets, where we intend to add another 500 branches in the next 2 years," Biyani said.