Cairn Energy says Cairn India to list on Jan 9
LONDON (AFX) - Cairn India Ltd is to list on two Indian stock markets on Jan
9, said a spokesman at its parent company, Cairn Energy PLC.
It will be traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock
Exchange. The book-building process for the offer ended on Dec 15, with the
shares priced at 160 rupees apiece, at the low end of the indicative range of
160-190 rupees.
The allotment of the shares is to take place on Dec 29.
"The share allocation is going ahead tomorrow... Cairn India is listing on
Jan 9," the spokesman told AFX News.
The issue "continues to be oversubscribed," he said, dismissing a press
report that the shares were not fully taken up by investors.
"That's absolute nonsense," he stressed.
Cairn Energy shares fell on the London exchange today, partly after the
Times of India reported several retail investors withdrew their applications
after Dec 15.
This forced the underwriters Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and ABN Amro
Rothschild to take up the unsubscribed shares, chipping in around 3 bln rupees
(about 68 mln usd) to "bail out" the issue, the article added, citing an unnamed
senior banker.
The institutional investors' portion of the offer was oversubscribed by
around 1.5 times, the article said.
Cairn India will have a market capitalisation of 6.3 bln usd upon listing,
excluding the exercise of the over-allotment option.
It offered 328.8 mln shares to the public, on top of the 209.67 mln shares
it issued in a private placing.
Malaysian oil giant Petronas was the biggest investor in the placing, taking
up 176.53 mln shares, thus giving it a 10 pct stake in Cairn India.
Cairn Energy will end up with a 69.5 pct holding in the wholly owned unit
after the offer.
At 12.27 pm, Cairn Energy was down 23 pence at 1,781, touching a low of
1,746 pence earlier.