Mahindra Holidays IPO To Open In Jan

MUMBAI: Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India, a leisure hospitality provider offering family holidays and part of the Mahindra Group, said on Friday that it is considering a pre-IPO sale of 2.5 million shares by January 2008.

The company has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for an initial public offering (IPO) of 10.7 million equity shares of Rs 10 each. The price will be decided through a 100% book-building process.

“The IPO will open end-January and the listing will be by February,” said company chairman Arun Nanda. The issue would constitute 13% of the fully-diluted post paid-up capital of the company and will include a fresh issue of 4.1 million shares and an offer for sale of 6.6 million shares by Mahindra Holdings & Finance. The company said it would reduce the IPO size proportionately if the pre-IPO sale is completed.

The proceeds of the issue will finance expansion of some of its existing resorts and setting up of new projects. The company, through its RCI affiliation, has a pan-India coverage with 21 resorts and and 63,375 vacation ownership members.

The company plans to construct new resorts and projects at Pondicherry, Kumbalgarh (Rajasthan), Kadambakkam (Tamil Nadu), Binsar (Uttaranchal), Theog (Himachal Pradesh) and Tungi (Maharashtra).

Club Mahindra is the flagship brand of Mahindra Holidays and Resorts. M&M is the group’s flagship company. As many as six group companies are already listed on the bourses including M&M, Mahindra Forgings, M&M Financial Services and Mahindra Gesco Developers.