Coal India IPO opens on Oct. 18

The price band for the Coal India Ltd. IPO has been fixed at Rs225-245 a share, Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said in New Delhi. The Government could raise as much as US$3.5bn at this price. The Government is selling roughly 631.6 million Coal India shares, or 10% of the company, in what is touted to be the largest share sale in the country. The IPO opens on Oct. 18 and closes on Oct. 21. Coal India will list on November 4. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Kotak Mahindra Capital, Enam Securities, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch are the lead managers for the IPO. Employees of Coal India and the retail investors will get a 5% discount.



Coal India Chairman Partha Bhattacharyya said that the company has set aside US$1.2bn for overseas acquisitions in the current fiscal year. He further added that the focus will be on expansion of profit margins in the future and that Coal India will go for washing of coal in a big way. Margin growth will be a dominant focus in future, he said. Coal India promises to be the nation's largest public issue. The IPO would surpass Reliance Power's Rs 116nm IPO in January 2008 as India’s biggest public issue.