BANGALORE: Bangalore-based builder Puravankara ProjectsBSE 0.24 % is planning to raise about Rs 400 crore through institutional placement programme, in the third such investment in the country's real estatesector, and increase its public shareholding to 25%.

The company is expected to offload 15% holding of its promoters to meet stock market regulator Sebi's deadline of June 2013 to bring down promoters' shareholding to 75%.

"The realty firm has approached Sebi to allow them to dilute the stake and is waiting to hear from the regulator ," a person familiar with the development told ET.

The promoters currently hold 89.96% stake in the company . It is yet unclear how many shares the company will offload and what price, said the person, who did not wish to be named. Jackbastian Nazareth, the group chief executive, refused to comment on the matter, saying the company will make a statement at an appropriate time.

Recently, another Bangalore-based real estate firm, Prestige Estates ProjectsBSE -0.89 % successfully completed an over Rs 350 crore institutional placement programme or IPP, which was subscribed 2.75 times.

Last year, Godrej PropertiesBSE 0.06 % had also hit the capital market to bring down the promoters' holding to comply with Sebi's norm. Puravankara Projects has reported 101% increase in profit for the quarter ended December 2012 at Rs 64 crore. Net sales rose 60% over the year-ago period to Rs 311 crore.

The builder, which sold 0.91 million sq ft of new space in the quarter valued at Rs 355 crore, is targeting sales volume of 3 million sq ft for the full year.

Puravankara has 25.92 million sq ft of projects at various stages of development under Provident and Puravankara brands. It will launch an additional 3.5 million sq ft by the end of the fiscal .

The developer has a land bank of 84 million sq ft across the country. The company's debt equity ratio is 0.82, with a net debt of Rs 1,515 crore. It plans to bring down its debt equity ratio 0.65 over the next two quarters.

source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/real-estate/news/puravankara-set-to-offload-rs-400-crore-stake-to-institutions/articleshow/18265487.cms