By Kenan Machado
MUMBAI--Coffee Day Group, owner of India's largest coffee chain
operator Cafe Coffee Day, plans to make an initial share offering
this year as it seeks to compete in an increasingly crowded market,
three people familiar with the matter said Monday.
While the size of the offering or the stakes that would be sold
by the founders haven't been finalized, the company wants to raise
at least $200 million through the share sale, the people, who
didn't wish to be named, told The Wall Street Journal.
Investment bankers have indicated that the company could be
valued between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion, the people said.
Coffee Day is the latest among several companies rushing to
raise money from Indian capital markets which have been buzzing
with optimism that the country's new government will implement
business-friendly policies and speed up policy changes needed to
revive economic growth. In June alone, Indian firms have raised
about $2.7 billion, sharply higher than the $835 million raised in
the previous two months, data from Dealogic show. Indian stock
markets have gained 24% since January.
The group's founders include Indian entrepreneur V.G.
Siddhartha, U.S.-based private equity firm KKR & Co. L.P.,
private equity firms NSR Partners LLC. and Standard Chartered
Private Equity Ltd. KKR and Standard Chartered declined to comment
while the other founders did not respond to requests for
comment.
In the coffee market, Coffee Day competes with the likes of
Luigi Lavazza S.p.A, Costa Coffee, owned by Whitbread Group PLC,
and Starbucks Corp. The Coffee Day group also owns Bangalore-based
real estate developer Tanglin Developers Pvt. Ltd., boutique hotel
chain The Serai Resorts and Mumbai-based stock broker Way2Wealth
Brokers Pvt. Besides, it holds an 11% stake in Bangalore-based
software maker MindTree Ltd. and a 53% stake in Bangalore-based
logistics provider Sical Logistics Ltd.
-Write to Kenan Machado at kenan.machado@wsj.com
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