Wheels India proposes to raise Rs 100 cr via public issue

The current debt of the company is around Rs 400 crore

Auto component manufacturer Wheels India has proposed raising Rs 100 crore through public issue to meet its capital requirements, a top company official said today.

The Board of Directors of the TVS Group company, at its meeting today, approved the public issue of equity capital up to Rs 100 crore, Wheels India Managing Director Srivats Ram said.

"We want to improve our debt equity ratio and bring working capital to the company for which we have decided to go for a fresh public issue of raising Rs 100 crore," he told reporters.

According to him, the current debt of the company was around Rs 400 crore.

Noting that the company may dilute about five% of its stake to raise the funds, he said the fund-raising plans would also address the deadline of market regulator Sebi guidelines for listed companies to have at least 25% of equity held by public.

At present, the public share holding in the company is about 14.38%.

To a query he said major portion of the funds raised would be spent on the capital requirement. He said the company had not yet decided on "modus operandi" to raise the issue which would be decided later. "It may be through QIP also", he said.

On the Titan Europe, one of the share holders of company, picking up stake, he said it is required to make an open offer to the public shareholders of Wheels India as per the "statutory requirements".

However, he clarified through this open offer by Titan Europe, "management control (of Wheels India) will remain the same".