Affle Holdings gets Sebi's go ahead for India unit IPO

Singapore-based Affle Holdings has received capital markets regulator Sebi's go ahead to launch the initial share-sale offering of its Indian unit, merchant banking sources said Monday.

The Indian unit -- Affle (India) -- is expected to raise around Rs 650 crore through its initial public offer (IPO), they added.

The company, which had filed the draft documents with the regulator in July seeking its clearance to float an IPO, obtained the 'observations' from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on October 19.

Going by the draft papers, the IPO comprises fresh issue of shares worth Rs 90 crore, besides an offer for sale of up to 55 lakh equity shares by Affle Holdings.

ICICI Securities and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) will manage the company's public issue.

Proceeds of the issue would be used to fund the working capital requirements of the company and for other general corporate purpose, the mobile marketing firm said.

Affle is a leading global technology company with a proprietary consumer intelligence platform that delivers consumer acquisitions, engagements and transactions through relevant mobile advertising.

Also, it provides end-to-end solutions for enterprises to enhance their engagement with mobile users, such as developing apps, enabling offline to online commerce for offline businesses with e-commerce aspirations and providing enterprise grade data analytics for online and offline companies.

In 2009, Microsoft had picked up a minority stake in Affle Holdings.