Cox & Kings soars on day one of listing

Travel and tour company Cox & Kings (India) made an impressive debut on bourses today. The stock closed 30 per cent up at Rs 426.05 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) as against the initial public offer (IPO) price of Rs 330. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the stock closed at Rs 430.

The stock opened at a discount of Rs 26 at Rs 304.10 on BSE, but recovered soon and went on to touch a high of Rs 433 in intra-day trade. The counter saw huge trading volumes of over 16.95 million shares on BSE.

The company raised over Rs 610 crore, out of which it would get over Rs 509 crore, while the rest would be given to other stakeholders.

“We have passed an important milestone, but the IPO is not the end of the road ... It is the beginning of a new and exciting stretch of the road,” Cox & Kings Chairman ABM Good told reporters here. We received a good response and the issue was subscribed 5.64 times. We have raised Rs 610 crore,” said Chief Financial Officer Sunil Khandelwal. The company would use the proceeds for retiring debt, acquisitions and other strategic initiatives, he said.

“We will retire Rs 130 crore debt through the proceeds and have kept Rs 150 crore for acquisitions,” Khandelwal said. After paring debt, the company’s debt-equity ratio would be 1:1, he said. The company was open to any opportunity for acquisition in any part of the world, Good said. Talking about the growth of the hospitality industry in the country, Good said although the inbound market was affected by the tragic event in Mumbai (26/11), there had been an increase in occupancy rates recently.

“The future of the hospitality industry looks rosy in outbound, inbound and domestic markets,” Good said. Cox and Kings India is the parent of UK-based unlisted Cox and Kings and accounts for nearly 66 per cent of the group’s global revenues.

Godrej Properties IPO subscribed nearly 4 times

Godrej Properties’ Rs 500-crore public offer has received good response from investors. The issue was subscribed nearly four times on the final day of the offer today.

The initial public offering (IPO) of the Mumbai-based realtor received bids for over 29.8 million shares (3.86 times) as against 7.73 million shares on offer for public, according to latest data available with the National Stock Exchange . Till yesterday, in the qualified institutional buyers portion, the IPO got subscribed 2.42 times, with bids for over 9.6 million shares as against 3.9 million shares reserved for them.