Future Ventures IPO opens, price at Rs 10-11

The IPO of Future Ventures Ltd, a part of the Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group, opened on Monday, with a price band of Rs 10-11 per share.

The initial public offering (IPO) of the Rs 750 crore issue will close on April 27 for qualified institutional bidders (QIBs) and on April 28 for retail and non-institutional bidders.

While this is the Group's biggest IPO after the Rs 450 crore issue of Future Capital Holding, it is the second largest IPO of 2011 so far after Muthoot Finance. The first company of the Future Group to hit the capital markets was Pantaloon Retail with an IPO of a mere Rs 4 crore.

Future Ventures was orginally incorporated as Subhikshith Finance and Investments Ltd in 1996 as a private equity firm and has since grown to be a Rs 1,000-crore firm with a focus on investing in fashion and FMCG firms primarily.

The IPO's proceeds would be used to fuel acquisition plans in the FMCG, food and fashion segments, the company said.

Enam Securities, JM Financial and Kotak Mahindra Capital are the book-running lead managers to the issue.

"The idea is to invest in businesses that are strategically important for the overall group. We will be looking at acquiring, creating new and growing our existing private brands," Future Ventures CEO K K Rathi said.

The company has so far invested in 13 companies across the two major sectors - food and fashion - and they have about 30-40 different private brands in their kitty and plan to grow their brands in the coming years, Rathi said.

With PTI inputs