PREIPO: GODREJ AGRO EMPLOYEES BUY SHARES WORTH $1.5 MN

MUMBAI: About 50 Godrej group employees have bought shares worth around $1.5 million in a so-called pre-initial public offering (IPO) round of Godrej Agrovet Ltd, two people aware of the development said. The preIPO round saw employees from group firms, including Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, Godrej Properties Ltd, Nature’s Basket, Godrej Tyson Foods and Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Co. Ltd, participating in the round, the people cited above said.

The company filed its RHP on Friday, said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity. “Senior group employees who invested in the pre-IPO round include Godrej Consumer Products MD Vivek Gambhir, Nature’s Basket MD Avani Davda and Godrej and Boyce president Anil Verma.”

“The company has fixed the upper end at ₹440 per share for the IPO, which is expected to launch in the first week of October,” said the second person cited above. At ₹440 a share, the firm is seeking a valuation of ₹8,145 crore ($1.27 billion), he added.

“As disclosed in the Red Herring Prospectus dated September 22, 2017 filed with the Registrar of Companies, Mumbai, our company has, in consultation with the BRLMs, issued and allotted 192,901 equity shares for cash consideration aggregating to ₹8.5 crore through a private placement to identified employees,” said a spokesperson for Godrej Agrovet in an email response.

The company did not respond to queries on IPO pricing and valuation, citing silent period ahead of its IPO.