DLF pricing likely to be at top-end: Kotak Inst Banking

A: The book is pretty good at the top end with high quality investors and a pretty large book at the top end. So, yes, the deal could be priced at the top end. The management is going to decide today or tomorrow, they have the option to leave something on the table for the investors.

Q: Is that what you recommend to leave a little bit on the table for investors, or it would be done at the higher end?

A: No, I think they technically have a book at the higher end and now it's going to be at the management's discretion to decide which way they go. So I think, there is a high quality book at the top end. Let's wait for one-two days, we will come to know soon.

Q: Media reports are suggesting that most bids have come in at the lower end. Can you break it up on percentage of how much was subscribed at Rs 550 end of the band and how much at Rs 500?

A: I think, the demand is not that price sensitive . The data I have here is that the top end itself QIB is about four times and at the bottom end it's five times. So there is just that much price sensitivity and all the retail and wholesale demand is obviously at the top end itself.

Q: Are you disappointed by the kind of numbers that come in on the HNI side, which is just about one time?

A: It was a large deal and our expectation for retail also compared to where we started off. In terms of our expectations, this is pretty much just slightly below. So I would say, yes, there is a lot of supply of paper and there are pressures in the market and that probably reflects in the retail and HNI performance.

But I must say, that quality of the institutional book is superb, lots of high quality accounts have come in, very well geographically spread and for a deal of this size, first time out of India, it has done very well. Very happy with the institutional response.

Q: What kind of post listing appetite do you see from the institutions?

A: To the extent, that most of these institutions are going to be filled about 1/4th of what their demand is. This deal has appealed a lot to long-term oriented accounts. So I think that's the beauty and that should give us the message.

Q: Who were the top five bidders, if you could share some names with us?

A: Unfortunately I can't share anything that is not in public domain. But I can definitely tell you that it is a very high quality demand, what we call  long only funds or long-term India investors . I think this deal has appealed a lot more to foreign investors .

Q: One word on the domestic institutional interest and how high that was?

A: It was reasonable, but as I said, a lot of the interest has been from foreign investors.