Bharti Ipo Oversubscribed 2.5 Times

Bharti Tele-Ventures' initial public offering (IPO) for 18.53 crore equity shares through the 100 per cent book-building route has been oversubscribed 2.5 times. The company has decided to fix the issue price at Rs 45, although most of the demand was built in the range of Rs 46-48 a share. The company is likely to be listed at the stock exchanges by February 18.

While the total demand received under the book stood at Rs 2,137.5 crore, the amount retained by the company at the issue price was Rs 833.85 crore. After the initial allocation of shares, foreign ownership in the company has risen to 46.7 per cent, "leaving a clear gap of 2.3 per cent for secondary market trading", the company said in a release.

The issue, which closed on Saturday, has received over 25,000 applications in all. The total demand at Rs 47 a share and Rs 46 a share was 25.91 crore shares and 39.88 shares, respectively, the company said. JM Morgan Stanley and DSP Merrill Lynch are the book running lead managers of the issue.

While Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group managing director of Bharti said the IPO received "excellent response in a challenging market environment", Nimesh Kampani, chairman, JM Morgan Stanley said the success of the IPO will "open the gates for the primary capital markets in India". Hemendra Kothari, chairman of DSP Merrill Lynch said the issue will "allow other fundamentally strong companies to raise capital from the markets".