Reliance Power lists today

It has been a roller-coaster three weeks since India’s largest initial public offering (IPO), that of Reliance Power Ltd, closed.

Back then, if the premium that the shares commanded in the illegal grey market was any indication, investors were willing to pay almost double its Rs450 price. The Rs11,500 crore issue was subscribed in just one minute.

By the time the share lists today, two high-profile IPOs have been abandoned due to a lack of response. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s (BSE) benchmark index, the Sensex, has lost more than 3,200 points in that time.

So, how will Reliance Power fare? “It is like going to a restaurant. The food maybe very good, but if the ambience is not good, then your experience does get affected,” says Arun Kejriwal, director, Kejriwal Research and Information Services. “Nothing has changed for the issue itself, but sentiment in the market has changed, which will affect the listing price.”

Right after the issue closed, the market tumbled on global fears about the impact of the US subprime crisis. Two rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve within eight days and a Bank of England rate cut could not stem the flight of foreign capital from emerging markets. Read More>>

Top 10 Reasons For a LinkedIn IPO

1. Businesses that can cut costs for clients can IPO in a recession. LinkedIn cuts the cost of business development, recruiting and finding experts.

2. The best businesses IPO when markets are down. It shows strength. Who cares if it takes 12 months for markets to pickup? Insiders will be locked-in for a while anyway.

3. Facebook cannot IPO. Their $15bn valuation won’t wash with public investors and they can hardly do a down round. So LinkedIn gets the mindshare and public currency to win the next round.

4. Public currency is needed to buy local business networking sites such as Xing and Viadeo, where non-English languages make organic expansion hard.

5. LinkedIn keeps innovating, such as their recent move into expert networks to compete with Gerson Lehman Group. This move is an obvious revenue earner.

6. LinkedIn’s revenue model is not tied to advertising and is therefore more recession proof.

7. The bloom is off the Facebook rose, so strike while the iron is hot (sorry about mixed metaphors Ed)

8. We all need some cheery news amidst all this recession talk.

9. Somebody needs to show that public markets are suitable for high growth, high tech businesses and not just dividend-spouting oil companies.

10. Because I forecast that they would and I would love to be proved right.

Finally, why do we always need 10 items on these lists?

India's Bharat Oman to file for IPO soon

India's Bharat Oman Refineries
Ltd, an equal joint venture between state-run Bharat Petroleum
Corp (BPCL.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Oman Oil Co, will soon file for an initial
public offer to raise up to 25 billion rupees ($635 million),
three banking sources involved in the deal said.

The company plans to sell about 48 percent through the
public offer and a pre-IPO placement, the sources told Reuters
on Tuesday.

"We hope to file the draft prospectus by the end of this
week or early next week," one said.

Bharat Petroleum declined comment on the deal.

Bharat Oman Refineries is building a 120,000 barrels per
day (bpd) refinery at Bina in the central Indian state of
Madhya Pradesh at a cost of about 104 billion rupees and has
tied up a debt portion of about 64 billion rupees.

It is expected to be commissioned by end-2009.

Asian refiners are adding capacity to feed demand in
developed nations where there has been little expansion in
recent years and India hopes to become a regional refining
centre.

India, Asia's third-largest oil consumer, plans to expand
its refining capacity by 62 percent to 4.82 million bpd by
2012, to take advantage of its proximity to oil sources and
emerging markets.

BPCL runs a 240,000 bpd refinery in Mumbai, India's
financial hub, and another 150,000 bpd refinery in Kochi in the
southern state of Kerala. Its subsidiary Numaligarh Refinery
Ltd runs a 60,000 bpd refinery in north-east India. Read More>>

Reliance Plans IPO Of Communications Tower Unit

Anil Ambani is on a money-raising spree. After Reliance Power’s initial public offering drew an enthusiastic investor response, he is taking communications tower company Reliance Infratel to the markets.

Reliance Infratel is a subsidiary of Reliance Communications. It will offer 89 million equity shares at a face value of 5 rupees (12 cents) each. The issue will constitute 10.05% of the postissue, paid-up equity capital of the company, Mumbai-headquartered Reliance Communications said in a statement Monday.

Reliance Infratel builds, own and operates telecommunication towers and related assets and provides these to wireless and other communications service providers. Its offering to the markets comes soon after the government cleared parent company Reliance Communications’ bid to launch services under the popular global system for mobile communications format in 14 telecom service areas.

Reliance Communications was trading up 12%, at 685 rupees ($17.41), on the Bombay Stock Exchange.Read More>>

Reliance Power IPO subscribed 72 times

Investors bid for as many as 72 times the number of shares that Reliance Power offered for subscription under its initial public offering (IPO). They have put in bids for over 1,654.8 crore shares as against the 22.8 crore shares on offer.

The figures are based on the latest data available but merchant banking sources associated with the offer said that the final tally and the investor composition will be known later in the night.

The issue has already pulled in roughly Rs 60,000 crore by way of application money based on the data available as of yesterday – the exact amount depends on the investor composition.

The IPO received maximum response on the last day compared to the first three days, with the subscription count racing from 24 times as late as 9 p.m. on day three to over 72 times by 6 p.m. today.

On the evidence so far, it is clear that there has been surge in investor response on the last day compared to the earlier three days.

In terms of number of applications Reliance Power IPO has set a new record. It received ever nearly 31 lakh applications by the end of day three, the highest ever, according sources in the merchant banking industry handling the IPO.

By the end of day three the retail portion of the shares on offer received 9.02 times bidding while the qualified institutional buyers’ portion was subscribed 30.68 times. The non-institutional investors’ (corporate and high net worth individuals) portion was subscribed 32.40 times, as per composite BSE and NSE data compiled till late night yesterday. read full story