India’s First Internet IPO Opens Today
This is India’s first Internet IPO, and in a way a test case for more forthcoming IPOs like Indiatimes’ and Shaadi.com’s. The IPO of Info Edge India Ltd, the owners of Naukri.com, is opening today. The issue, which has been priced in the band of Rs 290 and Rs 320 a share, will be open till November 2 for subscription. Info Edge plans to sell 5.32 million shares, or nearly a fifth of its post-issue equity base. It would raise about Rs 170 crore at the top end of the band. The issue values Info Edge at $188 million.
The company runs sites like Naukri.com, 99acres.com and Jeevansathi.com. In May 2006, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures had picked up close to 5 per cent stake in Info Edge for $6 million. ICICI Venture also owns a stake in Info Edge. It had invested Rs 7.29 crore in 2000.
Info Edge had a revenue of Rs 840.59 million and a net profit of Rs 132.9 million in the year ending March 2006.
Posted In: E-Commerce, Classifieds Business
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Comments (9)
Oct 30, 2006 2:13 AM
In May 2006, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures had picked up close to 5 per cent stake in Info Edge.
The dates are wrong. According to draft RHP, refer page 67, Sherpalo and KPCB acquired stake on September-14th-2006 at a price of Rs245 per share. While the IPO price range for us is Rs290-Rs320. So you think the valuations of Info Edge India went up between 20-30% in just 1 month ?
Oct 30, 2006 8:04 AM
A private equity placement before the IPO is usually used to command a premium from retail investors at IPO. This is a trick everyone does before an IPO. This way, the PE guys have an immediate exit route OR a notional profit they will show in their books too.
Oct 30, 2006 8:26 AM
Chetan,
I remember KPCB and Sherpalo going on record on their investment in Naukri sometime in February - when John Doerr and Ram Shriram were in India. May be official formailities were completed in September, but the actual deal has happened much earlier.
Santosh,
SEBI has come up with new guidelines on the exit. There is a lock-in period of one year after the investment in the case of a pre-IPO placement.
Here is a story:
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?rep=2&aid=329791&ssid=52&sid=BUS
Oct 30, 2006 9:56 AM
Sahad,
Nobody can file false information in RHP :-) Only facts get a place in RHP. I have seen lot of such announcements and investments from the days of Kerry Packer in HFCL.
Oct 30, 2006 11:30 AM
Sahad,
Why do you call it the India’s “first” Internet IPO? I thought Rediff was listed for a while now. Are you referring to the fact that it’ll be listed on Indian exchanges? Well even then, I think we can pull out some not-so-famous Internet companies that were listed before this. Isn’t it?
Oct 30, 2006 12:18 PM
Chetan,
The term sheets with KPCB and Sherpalo were signed in February, according to company sources. So the price was fixed then.
Aseem,
I called Naukri as India’s first internet IPO because it’s the first dot com pure play to list in India. Rediff and Sify listed abroad. Ok, pls tell us which are the internet companies that have listed in India before Naukri. We would love to know them.
Oct 30, 2006 12:51 PM
Sahad,
Please I would like to see a statement by Naukri or the VCs themselves in this regard. Is it published on their website or did they confirm it by e-mail ? No pointers to blogs or press please.
Oct 30, 2006 2:21 PM
Sahad,
Way back in 99, when everyone was talking about NASDAQ listing in their business plans, I found a little no-name “online” company on DSE (yeah Delhi Stock Exchange). Sorry I forget the name. Now, even then I had a suspicion that it was really some other company simply calling itself a “online” company for better valuation. I didn’t track the market after that, but I assumed that if someone from non-internet business had the cons to do it, there would have been a lot of regular legit online businesses to raise money from the market, however small it might be. It’s hard to believe it didn’t happen for last 7 years. Anyways, I’ll read your story’s title as “India’s First ‘real’ Internet IPO Opens today” and save both of us some time. Thanks
Mar 7, 2007 12:32 AM
Hey Sahad,
I am pulling out this thread from long ago, but I just noticed that Geodesic (http://www.geodesic.com/) is a listed company too (traded in India). And from all that I can see from their offerings, they are all into Internet products.
-Aseem