SEBI gives go-ahead to Emaar-MGF IPO

Realty major Emaar-MGF's application to go public has got the stamp of approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to launch its Initial Public Offering (IPO). The IPO is expected to hit the market in the first week of February and raise between Rs 5,000-6,000 crores, making it the second largest realty IPO in the country till date. The company will offload 11 crore shares with the pricing expected to hover around Rs 500-600 per share.

According to sources, the go-ahead came on Tuesday, subject to compliance of observations. "The documents will be finalized in another day or two and filed by Friday or Monday. This is only a formality and we expect to get everything ready so as to launch the IPO in early February," says the source.

Emaar MGF Land, a joint venture between one of the world's leading real estate companies Emaar Properties PJSC of Dubai, and MGF Development of India, filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI in September last year to enter the capital market with its IPO of equity shares.

The global co-ordinators and book running lead manager to the issue are Enam Securities Private Limited and DSP Merill Lynch Limited. The Book Lead Managers are Citigroup Global Markets India Private Limited, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Private Limited, JP Morgan India Private Limited and Goldman Sachs (India) Securities Private Limited.

The company is engaged in the development of properties in the residential, commercial, retail and hospitality sectors. Its operations span various aspects of real estate development such as land identification and acquisition; project planning, designing, marketing and execution.

Some of the current projects under implementation include development of Palm Springs and Palm Drive in Gurgaon, Mohali Hills at Mohali, the prestigious Commonwealth Games village, Delhi and Boulder Hills, Hyderabad.

Many real estate companies launched their IPOs last year, but the largest of them all was the DLF offering in July 2007, which raised Rs 9187 crore.