London: Tata Steel, one of the world's leading steel companies, Monday raised $500 million on the London Stock Exchange - the largest ever Indian Global Depository Receipt (GDR) offering in London.
Welcoming Tatas, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) said the amount represented one of the biggest new equity issues to be conducted by a company outside its home market on any global exchange in the last 12 months.
"As a globally ambitious Indian company, with significant operations in Europe, Tata Steel is a high profile addition to our markets," said LSE Group Chief Executive Xavier Rolet.
"Tata Steel's listing demonstrates that London remains the market of choice for companies from across the globe seeking to access a truly global pool of international investment capital and benefit from trading on the International Order Book, the world's most liquid trading platform for GDRs," he added.
Commenting on the equity raising, Tata Steel Managing Director B. Muthuraman said the equity raising exercise and the LSE listing marked "a significant milestone in the company's capital raising journey and demonstrates investors' interest in the company's strategic direction".
With the arrival of Tata Steel, there are now 52 Indian companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange's markets, comprising 19 listed on the Professional Securities Market (PSM), 11 on the Main Market, and 22 quoted on the Alternative Investment Market, or AIM.
Another 10 Indian companies are listed on other exchanges but are admitted to trading on the LSE's International Order Book.
Tata Steel is the world's sixth largest steel company with an existing annual crude steel production capacity of 30 million tonnes per annum.
The company's European factories in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway and Belgium manufactured over 20 million tones of steel in 2008.
IANS
First Published: Monday, July 27, 2009, 17:54