JOIN US Indians bought gold worth Rs 174,727 crore in 2010, 66 per cent more than the previous year. To cash in from the demand boom, Joyalukkas India, a leading name in jewellery business, is planning major expansion of its business to finance which it will soon enter the capital market with an initial public offer (IPO) of 1.80 crore share.
The company has applied to Securities & exchange Board of India (Sebi) for approval. The company plans to invest Rs 420 crore in new outlets and Rs 105 crore in repaying loans. Since this is to be met by the public offer, it is expected that the shares will be priced at around Rs 300 per share. The actual price will be discovered through the book building process.
Joyalukkas India is a South India based company with focus on large format stores. Its three premier stores are situated in Chennai, Bangalore and Coimbatore, having aggregate total floor area of 96,309 sq. ft. It also has small textile business in Kerala.
According to the company’s prospectus, Joyalukkas India’s total revenue in 2009-10 was at Rs 1823.65 crore — sales of jewellery worth Rs 1673.00 crore and textile worth Rs 149.05 crore. It earned net profit of Rs 67.35 crore, indicating a net margin of 3.7 per cent. In April-September 2010 period sales was Rs 1255.24 crore, net profit Rs 54.47 crore and net margin 4.34 per cent.
Joyalukkas presently has 22 retail stores, of which 10 are large format stores.