The Hindu Business Line : Moser Baer to list overseas in 2-3 yrs

MOSER Baer India Ltd, the world's third largest manufacturer of optical storage media products, has said it would look at the possibility of an overseas listing in the next 2-3 years to provide an exit option for some of the private equity investors and also to benchmark itself internationally.

"It will definitely not happen in the next 9-12 months. But we will list ourselves in an exchange outside India to provide better liquidity for investors and also to provide a base for investors who are not registered FIIs in India going forward, and we will do it in 2-3 years' timeframe," Mr Ratul Puri, Executive Director, Moser Baer, said.

He said that the company has not yet decided whether to list in Europe or US market. "Overseas listing is a natural part of what we need to do for three reasons. First, at some point of time we will have to provide an exit vehicle for private equity investors. Also we believe there is significant part of investor base who understand our industry or the type of products we operate in, but who do not have the ability to invest in India," he said.

Overseas listing would also provide Moser Baer with an ability to benchmark itself internationally. "We hope to get valued at the same level at which our peers get valued," he said.

He said that the `base level activities' required for overseas listing are being put into place in the company over the last two to three years. "These include accounting standards, or understanding the requirement from corporate governance perspective," he said, adding that "beyond that we have to also look at other factors like what part of the product lifecycle are we in; and how the capital markets shape up."

Mr Puri said that the company would tie up about Rs 400 crore of debt in the current financial year, which is half of MBIL's capex plan, from a mix of international and domestic lenders and banks.

"There is no cash flow requirement to tie up the debt. It is only project structuring requirement. So typically we keep tying the debt as and when we find the right benchmark of cost and the environment is correct," he said.