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| Modi mulls $1 billion IPO, scraps Dubai plan | |
| Bloomberg / Singapore June 23, 2009, 0:47 IST | |
Indian billionaire Bhupendra Kumar Modi, who has interests spanning telecommunications to financial services, said his holding company planned to raise about $1 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) after scrapping a share sale in Dubai.
Singapore-based Spice Global aims to raise the money on another exchange in 2011, Modi, 60, said in an interview in the city-state. Spice Global dropped its planned $500-million Dubai IPO after the Dubai Financial Market General Index slumped 65 per cent in the past year, compared with a 32 per cent decline in the MSCI World Index.
The company has yet to decide on where it will hold the IPO, preferring an exchange that would allow shareholders to trade shares using mobile phones, said Modi, chairman of Spice Global, in the interview which was conducted on June 20 at his S$15.5-million ($10.6-million) penthouse that overlooks the construction of the Marina Bay Sands casino-resort in Singapore.
“We will go to the exchange that is mobile wireless,” Modi said. While the company is considering Singapore, the city-state’s exchange is “too small and will need a tie-up,” he added.
Modi said he plans to spend more than $2 billion to expand Spice Global, including opening 10,000 mobile phone services stores that sell “digital wireless products,” in three years.
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