NEW DELHI: India’s Just Dial search engine launched yesterday an initial public offer to raise up to $174m, marking the biggest share offering so far in 2013 and one of the largest by an Indian Internet firm.
The Mumbai-based local business search firm, which began operations in the mid-1990s as a telephone-based directory and moved later to the Internet, is offloading one-quarter of its equity in the initial public offer (IPO).
Founded by the company’s managing director, VSS Mani, Just Dial features 9.1 million Indian business listings on its Justdial.com site while nearly three-quarters of its revenues comes from advertisers.
It aims to tap the buoyant Indian stock market and sell 17.5 million shares to raise up to Rs950bn ($174m). Mani established the company, which posted profit last year of Rs523m, with seed capital of just $1,000. The company’s growth has been fuelled by India’s explosive expansion of mobile and Internet subscribers.
AFP
