Info Edge IPO sold 50 times

The initial public offer (IPO) of Info Edge India Ltd, the first Indian dotcom to go public on domestic bourses, received an overwhelming response from investors with the IPO getting oversubscribed by more than 50 times.

Info Edge India, which owns popular job and matrimony websites, such as naukri.com and jeevansathi.com, is the first internet company in the country to get listed on the domestic bourses. Firms such as Rediff and Sify have gone public, but they were listed on the US Nasdaq.

The retail portion of the issue, which closed on Thursday, was oversubscribed by about 15 times. The qualified institutional participant (QIP) category responded heavily to the IPO, oversubscribing by almost 85 times than the allocated size.

The IPO, which aims at collecting around Rs 180 crore, is expected to have collected more than Rs 3,200 crore following this huge response.

"Normally, internet firms hesitate to go public. This response means retail as well as institutional investors have faith in these companies. Future valuations have always been an issue of concern for these companies, but we hope this trend would change," said D Niranjan of ICICI Securities, which is the book running manager to the issue along with Citigroup Global Markets India Pvt Ltd. Intime Spectrum Registry Ltd is the registrar to the issue.

The public offer consists of 53.23 lakh equity shares of Rs 10 each, of which 5.32 lakh shares are reserved for employees. The issue would constitute 19.50 per cent of the fully-diluted, post-issue, paid-up capital of the company.

The proceeds of the IPO will be used to purchase or lease real estate for its offices, to acquire companies and to develop alternative delivery models.