Great Eastern Energy files DRHP with Sebi

Great Eastern Energy Corporation (GEEC), an energy sector company into commercial sale of coal-bed methane (CBM) in India, has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to enter the Indian capital market soon with an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

The IPO will consist of up to 9,12,80,501 equity shares of Re 1 each, and the issue would constitute about 15.45 per cent of the fully diluted post issue paid up capital. The equity shares are proposed to be listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange, the company said in a press release.

GEEC, one of the first CBM players in India, is focused on exploration and production of natural gas from coal seams, commonly known as CBM. It produces CBM from its block in Raniganj, West Bengal, which spans an area of 210 square kilometers with an estimated 1.92 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas-in-place. Great Eastern has already signed a franchisee agreement for supply and retail of CBM-based CNG through Indian Oil Corporation's petrol pumps in Asansol, Durgapur, Raniganj and other cities across West Bengal, the release said.

The company is in the process of laying pipelines and upon completion, GEEC believes that it will be a fully vertically-integrated CBM company capable of exploring, producing, distributing and selling natural gas to end users through an integrated network consisting of drilling, production, compression, transportation and logistics services, the release said.

The book running lead managers to the Issue are Enam Securities, ABN AMRO and SBI Capital Markets.