Rel Power gets record 3mn applications

The Rs 11,700-crore initial share sale by Anil Ambani's Reliance Power Ltd is setting several new benchmarks, as frenzied bidding by investors continued on the eve of the close of issue tomorrow.

The issue has set a new record for the total number of applications received for an initial public offering (IPO) in India. It also created a new record for the biggest total demand created for an IPO in the country.

A total of 3 million applications were received from investors for the Rs 11,700 crore IPO at 5 pm today, surpassing the 1.95 million applications received for Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Petroleum IPO in May 2006.

NTPC's initial share sale saw 1.44 million applications. Powergrid (1.27 million) and the just-concluded Future Capital IPO (1.17 million) were the other IPOs that generated big demand.

With one more day to go for the close of the IPO, the Reliance Power IPO generated demand for Rs 248,000 crore "" a new record. The previous highest demand was for the Mundra Port SEZ issue at Rs 203,708 crore.

Meanwhile, the Reliance Power IPO was subscribed 24 times at 6 pm, with the retail investor segment subscribed by 8 times.

The Qualified Institutional Bidders (QIB) segment was subscribed over 34 times; foreign institutional investors accounted for nearly 90 per cent of the bids in this segment. The high net worth investors portion was subscribed by 22 times.