FIIs commit $25 bn for RPL issue

Foreign institutional investors have committed $25 billion for the initialpublic offering of Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL), which closed on Thursday.
 
 Investment banking sources said 20 FIIs put in applications worth $ 620million each. Some other big institutions which put in bids lower than thisamount include London-based Pictet ($ 500 million) and Merrill LynchOffshore Fund. Prudential Portfolio and Japan's Nomura committed $300million each while the Royal family of Kuwait applied for shares worth $600 million.
 
 The institutions had paid margin money of 10 per cent of their investment.But they will not be able to garner shares equivalent to their applicationsdue to massive oversubscription. It is also learnt that hedge funds appliedfor $10 billion for this issue through participatory notes. The last timefunds applied through the PN route was at the time of the ONGC issue in2004.
 
 The QIB( qualified institutional bidder) portion was subscribed 68.2 times.High net worth individuals (HNI) applied for shares worth Rs 16,700 croreand they paid the full amount, as per Sebi rules.
 
 RPL's issue, which is meant for part financing a refinery at the specialeconomic zone at Jamnagar in Gujarat, attracted the highest retailapplications. As many as 2.13 million lakh applications were submitted byretail investors. The top two issues in terms of retail applications so farwere NTPC (1.422 million) and TCS (1.187 million) .
 
 Merchant banking sources said the average application size by retailinvestors was Rs 59,500, more than double the previous record. Retailinvestors were permitted to apply for shares worth Rs 1 lakh, against theearlier practice of permitting them to apply for Rs 50,000. The merchantbankers were forced to open the collection centres till 9 pm on thepenultimate day of the issue due to the huge retail response.