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Malabar Gold & Diamonds has started preliminary work to list its jewellery chain on the stock exchange through an initial public offering (IPO), Chairman MP Ahammed said in an interview.
The idea behind the listing is not to raise funds for expansion, Ahammed said, sitting in his office on the outskirts of Kozhikode city, where the company is based.
“We will offload 10 per cent of our holding through an IPO. We are planning to go public not to raise funds for expansion but to be under the supervision of a good institution such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India,” he said.
“If there is a 10 per cent public holding, our investors will be able to determine the worth of their shares; if they want they can sell shares in the open market,” Ahammed added.
Malabar Gold & Diamonds has mandated Ernst & Young for auditing and accounting its books ahead of the public offer. Ernst & Young has asked for a year to consolidate the books for the IPO. Our target is to hit the market during FY2020, Ahammed added.
No to private equity
Malabar Gold & Diamonds, according to Ahammed, is not seeking private equity (PE) funding.
“PEs will try to boost. We are not aspiring for a boost in share value. We have developed the company with total transparency. Whatever is actual, that’s enough. We have decided not have outsiders (PEs) control us,” Ahammed added.
Every year, 5 per cent of the firm’s revenues goes to charity. We want to continue with that. Our systems should function well. These things can continue, even if we go public, Ahammed said.
“Our sales turnover is more than Tanishq owned by the Tata Group, which itself has huge value. Our biggest competitor is Tanishq,” Ahammed said.
Malabar plans to increase its retail stores to 500 from the existing 216 by 2022.
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