Sterlite's $2 bn ADS to list in mid-June

Sterlite Industries is set to list its $2 billion (Rs 8,000 crore ) American Depository Shares (ADS) issue, the largest by any Indian company, with the New York Stock Exchange by the middle of this month.

Sources close to the development said the company would list the shares in the week beginning June 18. Road-shows for the issue, which will part-finance its plan to set up a power plant at an investment of Rs 12,500 crore, will begin towards the end of this week.

A team comprising Sterlite executives and representatives of its banks will visit Europe, the US, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan to sell the issue. Merrill Lynch, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Nomura are bankers to the issue.

They added that the company would sell 125 million ADS under the book-built issue with a minimum price of Rs 531.84. The issue has the option to sell an additional 18.75 million shares, or 15 per cent of the issue, depending on the response.

The ruling market rate is expected to work as the bench- mark as it hovers higher than the indicated price.

The Sterlite stock today closed flat at Rs 546.10 in a weak market. The face value of the Sterlite stock is Rs 2 After the issue, shareholding of London-based Vendanta Resources, the promoters, will come down to around 64 per cent from 80 per cent, depending on the subscription of the greenshoe option (under which the oversubscribed portion of a share issue can be exercised.

The biggest ADS issues to come out of India so far include those of Infosys ($1.6 billion), ICICI Bank ($500 million), Wipro ($500 million), HDFC Bank ($300 million) and Dr Reddy's Laboratories ($260 million).

The company has increased its authorised share capital from Rs 150 crore to Rs 185 crore to make room for the rise in share capital due to the ADS issue.