By Anna Peverieri and Alban Kacher
(Reuters) -Dutch tank storage group Vopak has received conditional approval for the initial public offering (IPO) of its Indian joint venture Aegis Vopak (AVTL) from the country’s markets regulator, the group said on Wednesday.
Vopak said last November that AVTL – a joint venture between India’s Aegis Logistics and Vopak – had filed for an IPO worth 35 billion rupees ($409.70 million) with the Securities and the Exchange Board of India.
The company, which has storage terminals in seven Indian ports, expects to profit from the dynamic growth of the country’s economy, with plans to invest in its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) market, the group told Reuters in February.
The IPO offering will comprise a primary issue of shares, group CFO Michiel Gilsing told Reuters in an interview following the release of Vopak’s first quarter results.
As the draft prospectus was approved two weeks ago, Vopak is now working on the updated draft, which it will file shortly, he added.
“The sentiment in the first quarter on the Indian Stock Exchange was not too good. Now it’s picking up again (…), the process is moving in the right direction,” Gilsing said.
The IPO’s proceeds will mainly be utilised for debt repayment and for the acquisition of an LPG terminal in the southern Indian city of Mangalore, Vopak said last November.
($1 = 85.4290 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Anna Peverieri and Alban Kacher; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
