Power Grid doubles on listing

Shares of Power Grid Corporation Ltd. (PGCIL) more than doubled as the mini navratna PSU in the power sector made a spectacular debut on the stock market. The stock closed at Rs100.65 on the BSE as against the issue price of Rs52. It touched a high of Rs109.40 and a low of Rs85. The scrip opened at Rs85. Traded volume on the counter surged to 99.7mn shares. The volume of trading was much higher on the NSE. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of PGCIL was heavily subscribed by all class of investors. PGCIL's public issue attracted US$30bn (over Rs1.2 trillion) in overseas subscriptions. As margin money alone, the issue brought in about US$3bn in forex into the country. The issue got subscribed nearly 65 times overall. The company raised Rs29bn at the upper end of the price band of Rs44-52 per share. The PGCIL issue comprised a fresh issue of up to 382,621,930 shares by the company and an Offer For Sale of up to 191,310,965 shares by the Government. The issue constituted about 13.64% of the fully diluted post- issue capital of PGCIL. After the issue, the Government will continue to hold 86.36% of the diluted post-Issue paid-up capital of the company. The net proceeds of the fresh issue will be utilized for 15 identified transmission projects. The estimated cost of these projects as on July 31, 2007 is approximately Rs127bn.