Piramal Said to Pick Citi, Morgan Stanley for $775 Million Offer

(Bloomberg) -- Piramal Enterprises Ltd., controlled by Indian billionaire Ajay Piramal, has picked Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley to arrange a share sale that could raise as much as 50 billion rupees ($775 million), people with knowledge of the matter said.

The Mumbai-based company, which has a $7.5 billion market value, also chose Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. to work on the offering, according to the people. Piramal aims to start the share sale to institutions as soon as next week, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

Piramal is raising funds after its shares gained 73 percent this year, outpacing the 17 percent rise in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex Index. Any deal will add to the $6.3 billion of new equity offerings in India over the past 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The exact timing and size of the share sale is yet to be finalized, the people said. The company sought shareholder approval last month for a share sale. A representative for Piramal said she couldn't immediately comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Anto Antony in Mumbai at aantony1@bloomberg.net, Crystal Tse in Hong Kong at ctse44@bloomberg.net, George Smith Alexander in Mumbai at galexander11@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Marcus Wright at mwright115@bloomberg.net, Ben Scent

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