Realty company Assetz to take confidential route for IPO

MUMBAI: Assetz, a Bengaluru-based real estate developer, is expected to confidentially file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for a Rs 1,200 crore initial public offering (IPO) in the coming days, according to people familiar with the development.

The proposed IPO is likely to be a combination of a fresh equity issuance and an offer for sale (OFS) by existing shareholders.

JM Financial, BofA Securities India and Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors are the book-running lead managers to the issue.

Email queries to the company and the bankers went unanswered.

In the confidential IPO filing route, issuers are allowed to keep their initial draft prospectus confidential from the public domain until the regulatory review process reaches an advanced stage.

J.P. Morgan, Aditya Birla Capital, Motilal Oswal Alternates and HDFC Ltd have been investors in projects of Assetz, founded by Ben Salmon and Rajpal Singh Chaudhary in 2006.

Bengaluru’s residential property market has remained one of the strongest in the country, driven by sustained demand from technology professionals, Global Capability Centres (GCCs), startups and a steadily expanding white-collar workforce. Robust employment generation, rising incomes and continued infrastructure development have supported healthy home sales despite higher property prices.

Developers have remained focused on premium housing and large integrated townships, while the city’s deep end-user demand and improving connectivity have encouraged continued land acquisitions, new project launches and institutional investments.