Future Capital plans IPO

Future Capital Holdings, the financial arm of the Kishore Biyani-owned Pantaloon Retail, has decided to raise money from the market through its maiden public issue.

The board of directors of Pantaloon Retail, which controls nearly 74 per cent stake in Future Capital, today took a decision to this effect.

In addition to Pantaloon, Och-Ziff Capital, the hedge fund with $ 27 billion corpus, holds nearly 10 per cent stake. The remaining stake is being held by co-promoter Sameer Sain and other senior employees such as Atul Kapur and Shishir Baijal.

Future Capital operates two businesses "� asset management and consumer credit. The asset management business has four funds under management such as Kshitij ($850million domestic real estate fund); Horizon ($350million international real estate fund); IndiVision ($400 million non-leveraged private equity fund); and a new Hospitality fund. ($350million). The consumer credit business includes a personal lending business.

Stock market sources said Future Capital would offer a mix of new shares and some shares from the existing shareholders through the public issue. It means the shareholders will be able to monetise a part of their holding and the company will, simultaneously, get funds for its future expansion.

UBS Investment has recently valued the business of Future Capital to be around Rs 3,000 crore. So Pantaloon's stake is valued at Rs 2,200 or Rs 140 a share.

Sources said the exact size of the issue was not decided yet. It would take at least six months for the company to launch the issue, they added.