Premji buys 2% in Koutons for Rs 20 cr

Azim Premji has picked up a two per cent stake in Koutons Retail, an apparel retail company, for about Rs 20 crore.According to information available, Premji picked up about 300,000 shares of the Rs 700 crore publicly listed retail company, from the secondary market, through his private equity fund PremjiInvest.

This is the second investment by Premji in a textiles related company after he had bought a little over three per cent in Bangalore-based Himatsingka Limited. The company which is into textiles exports, also has a growing retail presence in home furnishings.

Ajay Mahajan, chief financial officer, Koutons Retail, confirmed the purchase by Premji.PremjiInvest is said to have a corpus of $1 billion (about Rs 4,000 crore) which is expected to be drawn down over three years. This private equity set-up has a team of about 20 professionals who hunt lucrative investment opportunities.

In addition to Koutons and Himatsingka, PremjiInvest has also invested $10 million (about Rs 400 crore) in Cicada Resorts, another Bangalore-based eco-tourism operator.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

Koutons to raise Rs 146 cr in IPO

Leading apparel manufacturing company Koutons Retail India on Friday announced that it would set up an integrated manufacturing facility at Gurgaon in Haryana to augment its production capacity.

It would also set up its exclusive brand outlets throughout the country, Koutons Retail India Chairman D P S Kohli told reporters here today.

He said to fund these projects the company would be coming out with an IPO, which opens on September 18 and closes on September 21.The company proposes to raise up to Rs 146 crore through a 100 per cent book-building process by issuing 35.24 lakh equity shares of face value of Rs 10.The price has been fixed at Rs 370 to Rs 415 a share.

Koutons sets IPO price band at Rs 370-415

Apparel maker Koutons Retail India Ltd said it had priced its initial public offer in the band of Rs370-415 a share.The offer opens on September 18 amd closes on September 21.

The offer will constitute 11.54% of the post-issue capital.Koutons plans to use the money to open retail outlets and set up a manufacturing unit.JM Financial Consultants is the lead manager to the offer.