The IPO may hit the street in less than two months, he said. Pipavav Shipyard had planned to raise Rs 700-800 crore through a public offering for 8.68 crore shares to expand its shipbuilding yard, including construction facilities, ship repair and offshore business.

“We are not changing our plans much,” he said when asked about the size of the IPO.

The company had filed a draft red herring prospectus with Sebi in January 2008, which the regulator approved in September last year. However, Pipavav Shipyard had to put its IPO plans on hold due to a sharp fall in the equity markets following the global economic meltdown. The approval is valid till third week of September this year.

“We are trying to catch up on that (deadline),” Gandhi said.Pipavav also did a pre-IPO placement last year. In the DRHP, Pipavav Shipyard said it plans to do a pre-IPO placement of up to 28.5 lakh shares.

CNBC-TV18 Matrix

Pipavav Shipyard may raise Rs 600-650 cr via IPO: Sources
Pipavav Shipyard, in which Punj Lloyd holds 22.34%, is likely to file a red herring prospectus for its initial public offer (IPO) within a week and is looking to raise nearly Rs 600-650 crore, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources.

The company is likely to dilute 12.5% stake and is valued at around Rs 5,000 crore. JM Financial, Citi and Enam are the lead managers to the issue.

Punj Lloyd bought 22.34% stake in the company at Rs 350 crore. Sea King Infra and Punj Lloyd are co-promoters, which hold 45.5% stake.

Posted: Sun, Jul 5 2009. 9:55 PM IST MINT

Pipavav wins $112 mn ONGC deal for 12 ships
The contract is Pipavav’s first for building offshore support vessels
P. Manoj
Bangalore: Private sector shipbuilder Pipavav Shipyard Ltd has won a $112 million (around Rs537.6 crore) contract from state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) to build 12 ships to be used to support oil drilling.
“We have received notification of award of contract from ONGC,” Pipavav chief executive officer J.P. Rai told Mint in a telephone conversation from Mumbai. An executive at ONGC confirmed the development, but did not want to be named because the deal has not been made public yet.
Pipavav beat nine contenders including ABG Shipyard Ltd, Bharati Shipyard Ltd and Cochin Shipyard Ltd.
The contract is Pipavav’s first for building ships used to support offshore oil exploration. Offshore support vessels play a key role in offshore oil exploration, being used to ferry workers, equipment and other supplies to oil fields. It also comes at a time when other shipbuilders are struggling to get orders in the wake of a global economic slowdown.
In February 2008, Pipavav, an unlisted firm promoted by SKIL Infrastructure Ltd, first started building ships. The firm has secured contracts for constructing 26 dry bulk cargo-carrying ships ordered by global fleet owners such as SETAF SAS of France, AVGI Maritime Services SA of Greece and Golden Ocean Group Ltd for a total value of $1.1 billion.
ONGC currently has a fleet of 30 offshore support vessels, most of which are undergoing repairs. The oil explorer requires 62 vessels to meet its exploration and production commitments. It has hired 32 support vessels from private shipping firms to assist in exploration, but is facing a shortage. The 12 new vessels are expected to join its fleet within 24-30 months, as part of its long-term plan to reduce shortage of these assets and also to replace older vessels.
Two persons with knowledge of the auction process said ONGC was able to save as much as $89 million for buying the 12 ships by asking for revised price quotations from the shortlisted firms to take advantage of the fall in ship prices globally.
In the first round of bidding in March, ONGC had received lowest price quotation of $16.7 million for building each vessel. At that price, the contract would have been worth $200.4 million. In the second round in May, the total acquisition cost fell to $112 million.
Pipavav is looking for a stock exchange listing by selling shares to the public through an initial public offering. Last year, the firm had filed a draft prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India to raise about Rs800 crore through a public issue. The share sale was put on hold due to poor market conditions.

Posted: Mon, Apr 6 2009. 7:55 PM IST MINT

Shipbuilding firms may claim over Rs4,000 cr subsidy
Firms like ABG Shipyard, Pipavav Shipyards, Bharti Shipyards & L&T are gearing up to claim subsidy, industry sources said
PTI
New Delhi: Shipbuilding companies, including ABG Shipyard, Pipavav Shipyard, Bharti Shipyard and Larsen & Toubro, are likely to claim subsidy of over Rs 4,000 crore in the next four years from the government.
According to industry sources, firms like ABG Shipyard, Pipavav Shipyards, Bharti Shipyards and Larsen & Toubro are gearing up to claim subsidy, given by the government to encourage private sector participation in shipbuilding in the country.
“We can claim Rs1,700 crore for contracts entered up to 14 August 2007, as ABG Shipyard has deliveries lined up till 2012-13,” ABG Shipyard chief financial officer Dhananjay Datar told PTI.
A subsidy of Rs120 crore is already due as per the present delivery position, he said.
Pipavav and Bharti Shipyards have also plans to claim about Rs1,000 crore each from the government while Larsen & Toubro and some others may claim about Rs300 crore each, sources said.
An L&T official said on conditions of anonymity the company’s current status indicated that it could claim Rs375 crore from the government.
“Pipavav Shipyard may claim about Rs1,000 crore subsidy from the government for contracts entered (into) within (the) stipulated period as and when it starts delivering,” a source added.

Pvt shipyards eye defence contracts
18 Feb 2009, 0125 hrs IST, Sumantra Das, ET Bureau
MUMBAI: With the global slowdown taking a heavy toll, private shipyards are now hoping to get some business from the defence sector. Companies like

ABG Shipyard, Bharati and Pipavav are tying up with international engineering companies like Rolls Royce, Wartsila Diesel and Yanmer Marine, among others, to get a share of the Rs 8,000-crore defence pie for ships.

ABG Shipyard and Bharati Shipyard have already tied up with Rolls Royce to build ships for Coast Guard, and others are also in talks for the same. This follows a fall in orders for new vessels in the last few months. But a bigger cause for concern for the shipbuilders is cancellation of orders. According to industry estimates, the cancellation rate, particularly in the dry bulk vessel segment, is averaging 10-15% of the global order books.

As per a proposal being considered by the government, sophisticated and smaller-size vessels required by Coast Guard and Indian Navy would be built by private shipyards while public sector shipyards would build strategic & large vessels required by the defence sector.

Currently, the Indian Navy orders are restricted to the naval shipyards under the purview of defence ministry, which include Mazagaon Dock, Goa Shipyard, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (Kolkata). But most of the shipyards are already booked for years and working at full capacity. To overcome this, the Indian Navy is likely to start ordering
ships from private players.

“In India, there are only a few private sector shipyards including ABG and Bharati which have the requisite expertise to fulfil the requirement of the defence sector,” said a Bharati Shipyard official. “Bharati Shipyard has built vessels for the Indian Navy in the past and we are keen to work for the Coast Guard and the Indian Navy. The company looks at the defence sector as an independent business unit and would like to build up volumes by actively participating in the bidding process of the tenders floated by the Coast Guard,” he said.

ABG Shipyard, which is executing defence orders worth Rs 600 crore, hopes to secure orders for bigger vessels. The company’s CFO, Dhananjay Datar, said: “Private shipyards are now gearing up for bigger defence orders as the global shipping market is in turbulent waters.” ABG Shipyard will now focus on securing more defence orders as the future requirement will be huge, he added.

Pipavav Shipyard is also keen on the defence sector. “We are looking at various kind of vessels for the Navy, which will be more complex and weapons-oriented. As we gain experience in doing these things, we will look at more complex vessels,” said a Pipavav official.