India’s biggest share offer of Reliance Power sets domestic record

India’s biggest initial public share offer by Reliance Power made domestic financial history as investors ordered nearly 200 billion dollars worth of stock, figures showed on Saturday.

“I am humbled by the level of respect that Indians have placed in me,” company chief Anil Ambani told a packed news conference after the figures were tallied following a four-day subscription period.

The initial public offering (IPO) was oversubscribed 73.04 times as investors scrambled for a slice of the 2.9 billion dollar flotation.

The IPO received five million applications for shares, beating the previous Indian record of 1.95 million for an offering by Reliance Petroleum in 2006, promoted by Anil’s elder brother Mukesh.

The company offered 260 million shares, or 10.1 percent of its capital, amid forecasts that the energy demands of power-hungry India’s fast-growing economy could create a booming business.

The IPO also received the largest-ever number of subscriptions in Indian capital market history as investors ordered more than 7.52 trillion rupees (191 billion dollars) worth of stock.

Anil Ambani noted the response was more remarkable since investors worldwide have been rattled by prospects of a US economic slowdown.

Investor orders for stock were more than triple the previous Indian record of 2.04 trillion rupees bid for an offering of Mundra Port, India’s largest private sector port, last November, bankers to the issue said.

The offering will be priced at the top end of its band -- 450 rupees a share -- and will list on stock exchanges in early February, Ambani said.

The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai group, which includes Reliance Power, will become the second largest Indian conglomerate, with a market capitalisation of 100 billion dollars, Anil Ambani said.

Mukesh Ambani owns India’s largest private sector firm Reliance Industries, with a market capitalisation of 128.4 billion dollars. Overseas fund demand for the IPO totalled 100 billion dollars or nearly 40 percent of India’s foreign exchange reserves, Ambani added.

“The massive demand clearly indicates faith people have in the Ambani name,” a capital markets chief at a Mumbai-based brokerage said Friday.

The Ambani siblings are among India’s richest businessmen and sons of the late Dhirubhai Ambani, the rags-to-riches founder of a corporate empire.

The IPO was fully subscribed just 60 seconds after it opened Tuesday.

India’s previous biggest IPO was by property giant DLF which raised 2.24 billion dollars last July.

One of the world’s largest issues globally was in 2006 when ICBC, China’s biggest bank by assets, raised a combined 19.1 billion US dollars in a dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The Beijing-based lender sold 48.39 billion shares, collecting the maximum sought as investors ordered more than 500 billion US dollars of stock.

Reliance Energy emerged from a split two years ago in the Reliance behemoth that straddled India’s economy for decades with activities in petrochemicals, oil and gas, refining, power, insurance and telecommunications.

The split was triggered by a messy family feud for control of the business.

Anil Ambani took control of the telecommunications, power and finance activities while Mukesh Ambani retained the petrochemical and oil businesses.

Reliance Power is a unit of Reliance Energy, which said the money raised will fund the development of power projects. Reliance Power is developing 13 power projects with a combined planned capacity of 28,200 megawatts.