Lavasa Zero In On To Raise 750 Crore, Files IPO

BANGALORE: Undeterred by the hurdles that has kept Lavasa Corporation from obtaining an IPO, it endeavors the second time to raise 750 crore and files documents with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The construction major HCC’s realty arm, Lavasa Corporation is developing the country’s first planned hill city in 10,000 hectares in Lavasa near Pune.

HCC said in a filing to the BSE, "Lavasa Corporation has filed its draft red-herring prospectus with SEBI today to go in for an initial public offering of its equity shares of Rs 10 each aggregating to 750 crore," reports Economic Times.

The realty corporation that had earlier filed an Initial Public Offering with SEBI to raise 2,000 crore had obtained clearance but with conflicting market conditions the scheme had been discarded.

An analyst said, “In 2010, Lavasa was selling four million sq ft annually and had announced its intention to increase this to 12 million sq ft. Now it sells only one million sq ft. At 15 per cent equity dilution, the valuation would now be around 5,000 crore,” reports Business Standard.

The first phase of Lavasa is nearly completed and the second is still on the progress. The corporation has handed over 600 residential units to city management service department and more than 500 units to customers 

The company has dealt with a list of conflict in the past. The environment and forest ministry issued a show-cause notice to the township, alleging violation of the environment impact assessment (EIA) notifications.  The company is filed against public interest litigation as it was claimed to have bought over 10,000 acres in violation of section 9 and 10 of the Maharastra Agricultural act. The company was further ordered to carry forward a status quo on all construction activities failing which the work discontinued for almost a year and hence the ministry passed an order against Lavasa.

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