Nov 13 (Reuters) - NTPC Green Energy set a price band on
Wednesday for its initial public offering (IPO), targeting a
valuation of as much as $10.8 billion in what is set to be
India's third-largest IPO this year, though analysts raised
concerns on the "aggressive" pricing.
The company set a price band of 102-108 rupees per share,
aiming to raise 100 billion rupees ($1.19 billion) in the IPO,
which trails only Hyundai Motor India and Swiggy
in size this year.
At the upper end of the range, NTPC Green, a unit of
state-owned power company NTPC, will be valued at 910
billion rupees ($10.78 billion), per Reuters calculations.
The IPO comes as India bets big on renewable power and is
ramping up capacity. However, its red-hot IPO market has cooled
in the past month due to underwhelming corporate earnings and an
exodus of foreign funds.
NTPC Green, which mostly produces solar power and has a few
wind energy projects, follows solar panel makers Waaree Energies
, Premier Energies and ACME Solar
to the stock market this year.
Some analysts flagged concerns over NTPC Green's valuation,
including on a price-to-earnings (PE) basis.
"The issue appears to be steeply priced for a company that
trails its peers on various valuation metrics," said Arun
Kejriwal, founder of brokerage Kejriwal Research.
NTPC Green's PE ratio of 148, based on last fiscal year's
earnings, is higher than its smaller peers but lags bigger rival
Adani Green Energy (260).
Kranthi Bathini, director of equity strategy at Wealthmills
Securities, said the valuation was "aggressive" but the profit
growth was attractive.
NTPC Green's profit nearly doubled to 3.45 billion rupees
last financial year, per its draft filing.
It will sell all the shares in the IPO -- which will be open
for bids from Nov. 19-22 -- and plans to use the proceeds to
repay its unit NTPC Renewable Energy's debt.
($1 = 84.4050 Indian rupees)