Macrotech Developers Ltd., India’s biggest homebuilder, plans to raise 25 billion rupees ($344 million) in an initial share sale to help reduce its massive debt burden.
The company, formerly known as Lodha Developers, has been trying to sell shares in an initial public offering since 2009. Macrotech made the latest announcement in an exchange filing on Tuesday.
A successful share sale will help the company, founded by a lawmaker from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, partially pay 80.8 billion rupees of liabilities due this year. India, like other nations, has seen a rush for IPOs as markets have boomed. India’s benchmark stock index has surged 36 per cent in the past six months making it Asia’s third-best performing equity measure in the period.
BloombergMacrotech’s IPO plan comes about a year after the builder skirted default on its dollar debt. Scrutiny has been piling onto the company in recent years after rating downgrades deeper into junk territory.
Moody’s Investors Service changed the outlook on the developer’s ratings to stable from negative in November , citing improvement in liquidity after refinancing of a construction loan and operating performance gains. Still, Moody’s Caa1 rating primarily reflects a high degree of refinancing risk for the firm, which has India’s highest residential sales by value.
