SP Apparels Ltd, the maker of menswear under the Crocodile brand, is seeking a valuation of as much as Rs 675 crore ($100 million) through a first-time share sale next week.
The company has fixed a price band of Rs 258-268 per share for its initial public offering that opens on August 2 and closes two days later.
The issue comprises a fresh issue of shares to raise around Rs 215 crore and an offer for sale of up to 9,00,000 shares by mid-market private equity firm Jacob Ballas, which owns the stake through New York Life Investment Management India Fund II LLC.
The company's IPO will coincide with that of construction firm Dilip Buildcon Ltd, which is hitting the market on August 1. These companies are among a host of firms tapping into the primary market at a time benchmark indices are trading near a one-year high after recovering from a drop early this year.
SP Apparels will be the third portfolio firm of Jacob Ballas to go public in a little over a year. Last year, two portfolio firms of the PE firm—theme park operator Adlabs Entertainment and infrastructure construction, development and management firm PNC Infratech—went public.
The Jacob Ballas fund had picked up a 10.71% stake in SP Apparels for Rs 36 crore in November 2006. It currently owns a 10.5% in the company and will sell around half of this.
The apparel maker, which operates 21 factories in Tamil Nadu, had filed its draft red herring prospectus for the IPO with capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in December.
It received SEBI approval for the IPO in April.
The IPO of SP Apparels will also test the primary market's appetite for an apparel firm. Another PE-backed apparel firm that floated its IPO was Monte Carlo Fashions Ltd in December 2014. Monte Carlo, which generates much higher profits compared with SP Apparels, never managed to touch the IPO issue price after listing.
SP Apparels, led by chairman and managing director P Sundararajan, posted a net profit of Rs 37.36 crore on revenue of about Rs 537 crore in the year through March 2016. That compared with a net profit of Rs 10.9 crore on revenue of Rs 476 crore the year before.
Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors and Centrum Capital are managing the IPO.
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