PNB Housing Finance and Varun Beverages join Indian IPO boom

India's PNB Housing Finance Ltd and Varun Beverages are looking to raise as much as $630 million combined from initial public offerings (IPOs) next week, underpinning a surge in first-time share sales in Asia's third-largest economy.

Indian companies have raised $2.9 billion through IPOs in the first nine months of this year, a 171 per cent jump from a year earlier and the best run since 2010, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

PNB Housing Finance Ltd, the fifth-largest mortgage lender by assets in India, is selling new shares to raise up to 30 billion rupees ($450.5 million) in the second largest IPO this year. The sale will open on Oct. 25 and close on Oct. 27, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

The lender has set a price range of 750 rupees to 775 rupees a share. Indian state-run Punjab National Bank, which owns 51 per cent of the lender, will see its holding diluted to about 38 per cent, while Carlyle Group's holding will drop to about 37 per cent from 49 per cent. Neither Punjab National Bank nor Carlyle will be selling shares in the IPO.

PNB's share sale will be the second largest this year after private sector life insurer ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co Ltd raised 60.57 billion rupees last month in the biggest local IPO in six years.

Varun Beverages, one of the largest bottlers for PepsiCo Inc, is looking to open an IPO to raise 11.5 billion rupees to 12 billion rupees on Oct. 26, two banking sources with direct knowledge said. Varun filed for the IPO in June.

Kotak Investment Banking, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JM Financial, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are managing the IPO for PNB Housing.

Kotak, Axis Capital, Citic CLSA and Yes Securities are managing the IPO for Varun Beverages.

Punjab National Bank