(21 November 2006 7:20 pm)

MUMBAI: DotCom days are here again. Info Edge (India), a provider of online recruitment, matrimonial classifieds and related services in India (through its Websites naukri.com, jeevansathi.com etc) made a very impressive debut with a 62.5 per cent premium at Rs 520 on BSE today against the offer price of Rs 320 per share of Rs 10 each.

The price shot up to Rs 623.80 intraday before closing for the day at Rs 593.20, a hefty premium of 85 per cent with a volume of 7.8 million equity shares on BSE.

The volume on NSE was higher at 11.6 million equity shares, taking the total volume on both the exchanges to 19.4 million equity shares on the very first day.

The company would use issue proceeds to purchase or lease real estate for their office, to acquire companies and use alternative delivery models such as messages through mobiles, etc. ICICI Securities and Citigroup Global Markets India were the book running lead managers to the issue.

The company entered the capital market on 30 October with an IPO of 5.32 million equity shares in the price band of Rs 290 to Rs 320 per equity share. The issue closed on 2 November. The issue constitutes 19.5 per cent of the fully diluted post issue paid-up equity capital of the company.

Info Edge wants to maintain its position as the leading provider of online recruitment solutions in India and further enhance its position as one of the leading providers of internet based matrimonial services. In addition, it seeks to diversify into and establish a position of leadership in the diverse spectrum of the online classified market and also to create such markets in those segments, which are currently catered to by the print media only.

In order to achieve these objectives, it will continue emphasis on innovation and customization of its products and services, enhance and diversify its advertising revenue streams, leverage offline relationships and diversify into providing online classified services in new market segments.

Presently its business activities are limited to primarily providing information exchange services in the recruitment, matrimonial and real estate markets; and the activities are concentrated in India.

Now the Company proposes to diversify into other segments of the online classifieds market such as automobile products, educational products and industrial products and expand its present business to the countries in the Middle East and in South Asia. It also intends to start several initiatives to enhance the features and qualities of its currently existing products and services.