ADBL's IPO oversubscribed by 150%

The initial public offering (IPO) of Agricultural Development Bank Ltd (ADBL) has been oversubscribed by one and a half times till Tuesday, the third day of the issue. Siddhant Raj Pandey, Chief Executive Officer of Ace Development Bank - the issue manager for the largest ever IPO in the country, told media persons that about 55,000 people have subscribed for shares worth Rs 1.4 billion till Tuesday evening. "The warm response from the public despite liquidity crunch and sluggish stock market has encouraged us. We have found equal response to the issue both in the capital and other parts of the country," Pandey said. He said application for shares worth Rs 390 million was collected by ADBL´s branches in the capital alone. "Most of the payments for applications were made through banking system in the capital, while home deposits were used in rural areas," he added. He said applications for subscription will be closed from Wednesday evening. ADBL has issued IPO of 9.6 million units of shares worth Rs 960 million from Sunday. Bank officials and the issue manager have claimed that the banks share will be oversubscribed by five times due to sound financial performance of the bank. A total of 288 outlets have been set up to collect applications across the country. With the new issues, total stake for public in the largest commercial bank in terms of branch network will increase to 44.14 percent. The bank issued 14.14 percent shares -- 4.52 million units-- to its debtors on December 10, 2007 in a bid to gradually divest the bank´s share to public.

Source: myrepublica.com