Cairn India to start construction of Raj proj in 2007

Indore, Dec 6: Cairn India Ltd (CIL), a crude oil and natural gas exploration company, will start the construction of its Rajasthan project next year which will be part-funded by its initial public offering opening December 11.

''We are ready to start the construction phase of our Mangala project in Rajasthan next year so that large-scale production can begin in 2009,'' CIL Head (Commercial and New Business) Tor McCaul told reporters while announcing the IPO here last evening.

He claimed that the company's total operated production in India was expected to go up to about 2,00,000 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) by the end of 2010 from 87,000 BOE per day presently.

The price band for the 32,87,99,675 equity shares' issue has been fixed between Rs 160-190 per share. Gross proceeds from the IPO would help CIL raise a minimum of Rs 8,616 crore at the lower end of the price band and a maximum of Rs 9,947 crore at the upper end.

Mr McCaul said that out of the total offer closing December 15, the company has completed a pre-IPO placement of 209.67 million equity shares, thus the net offer to public would stand reduced to 328.80 million shares along with the greenshoe option.

Out of the offer to the public, the company proposes to reserve 60 per cent for allotment to qualified institutional bidders, of which 5 per cent will be reserved for allotment to mutual funds.

Further, 10 per cent is being reserved for allotment to non-institutional investors and the balance 30 per cent will be made available for allotment to retail investors on a proportionate basis.

UNI