 |
 |
 |
 |
[ Source - THE ECONOMIC TIMES, Dated - 2008 ]
AFCONS Infrastructure, pan of the Shapoorji Pallonji group, has roped in Credit Suisse as a financial investor. The international financial services provider is believed to be investing around Rs 300 crore in AFCONS through 'structured finance' which may be converted into equity at a later stage. The move by the Mumbai-based construction major comes after it abandoned the proposed initial public offering (IPO), a few months ago.
Sources close to the development said AFCONS has been restructured into many verticals such as marine development, commercial property and infrastructure projects. Senior AFCONS officials were unavailable for comment.
The company decided to bring in a financial investor after its IPO failed to take off due to some technical issues, The issue was on hold for around four months after the market regulator Sebi took a cautious approach towards a bunch of real estate IPOs. Despite being non-real estate company, AFCONS had been bundled along with them. Sebi had subsequently cleared the issue, but the company decided to 'postpone' it indefinitely.
AFCONS was planning to hit the market by mid-March to generate about Rs 250-300 crore to fund its domestic and overseas expansions. It had filed a draft red herring prospectus in January 2007, and the three-month deadline to launch the IPO ex-pined on July 25,2007.
AFCONS posted a 64% growth in its annual turnover at Rs 1,100 crore during 2006-07, while profit before tax grew 86% to Rs 26 crore. The tax grew 86% to Rs 26 crore. The company has charted out a fast growth. The primary objective of the IPO was to make the company visible in the marketplace, rather than just raising funds. AFCONS is likely to come back to the primary market sometime in 2009," said a source. Credit Suisse regards India as one of the most important growth markets for its Asia Pacific business. Its brokerage and corporate advisory services are growing fast in the country. It recently opened a financial consultancy and advisory office in Mumbai in order to grow its wealth management business, the construction major, a leader in marine-related infrastructure construction in India, has already established operations in Qatar, Yemen, Oman and Mauritius. It is now looking at projects in other countries like Ankola, Algeria, Liberia and Trinidad, anto.
