Deutsche Securities and Merrill Lynch made over 3.5 x returns in their partial exit from three and half year old investment in travel services firm Cox and Kings' (India) IPO. Both the investors are sitting on unrealised gain of more than 4x on the remaining shares owned by them in Cox and Kings.
Merrill Lynch netted Rs 29 crore from partial sale of shares as against acquisition cost of Rs 8 crore at a price of 91.91/share in early 2006. The remaining shares that were acquired for just Rs 5.6 crore is valued at Rs 25 crore.
Deutsche Securities’ on the other hand sold more than half of its holding to pocket Rs 35.6 crore as compared to cost of acquisition of just Rs 9.92 crore. Its remaining holding is valued at Rs 31.8 crore as against the cost of acquisition of around Rs 6.9 crore.
Cox and Kings (India) is the parent of UK-based unlisted Cox and Kings, and accounts for nearly two third of the group's global revenues. It operates in 20 countries across the globe through subsidiaries and branch offices. The firm raised Rs 510 crore through fresh issue of shares in the IPO to be used to retire debt and for acquisitions.
The overall size of the IPO was Rs 610 crore which included share sale by some existing investors. Besides Deutsche Securities and Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers also sold stake held in the firm during the IPO.
Cox and Kings shares listed on the stock market on Friday at Rs 304 around 8% discount to the IPO issue price of Rs 330. However it has recovered smartly since then and closed at Rs 421 on Monday. This gives its IPO investors gains of over 27% within two days of listing.
