Pantaloon Retail, the country’s largest listed retailer raised Rs 500 crore by selling 15.8 million equity shares to investors at Rs 316 apiece, the company said in a statement to exchanges.

They sold at a discount, as its share price closed at Rs 333.55. The promoters have diluted around 9 per cent stake in the issue. The issue opened on Friday and was closed today, the company said.

According to sources, leading mutual funds and domestic institutions have participated in the issue. The company had shareholder approval to raise around Rs 1,000 crore by share sale. “We still have time to raise (all the)funds, we will do so at a later date,” a source said.

The QIP proceeds are likely to be used to fund expansion and repayment of debt.

The company has nearly Rs 3,800 crore of debt on the books, with a debt to equity ratio of 1.2. The management is planning to reduce this to 0.8 after the fund-raising exercise. According to analysts, the company’s fund raising is crucial, as it desperately needs funds for its expansion plans. Erlier plans to raise money from private equity funds are yet to come through. The company had scaled down its expansion in FY 2009, which ends on June 30, due to high cost of capital.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com

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