New Delhi: Rediff.com CEO Ajit Balakrishnan said an India listing is imminent and the management is in the process of deciding when to log on to the capital markets, reports CNBC-TV18.
Info Edge, the company that owns naukri.com, listed last November at a 50% premium to the issue price in India. That was the first dotcom listing and it has rediff.com drooling.
Ajit Balakrishnan, the founder and CEO, told CNBC-TV18 that an India listing is imminent. Rediff tapped the Nasdaq in 2001 when it needed capital. Now its stock is valued at USD 550 million.
Balakrishnan says Rediff does not need the money, but an IPO does not seem such a bad idea now that investors have shed the earlier qualms about investing in an IPO.
"India is the home country for the site and so at some stage we will be looking at listing here. I am very clear about that," said Ajit Balakrishnan, Chairman & CEO, rediff.com.
They have not yet decided on whether it will be in the medium or long-term.
"I do not know yet. Our teams are studying that and then we will take a call," said Balakrishnan.
CNBC-TV18 learnt that a team headed by CFO Joy Basu is in the process of evaluating an IPO. The time of listing or the money to be raised has not yet been fixed.
The timing seems just right. Internet users are growing by 30% yearly. There is a 70% rise in intensity of usage. Investment bank CLSA predicts that India will have 90 million Internet users in the next two and a half years, with the spread of broadband. This factor and the falling costs of internet access, should give Rediff the edge.
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