Last Update: 4:24 PM ET Jul 26, 2006
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Bucking what's been a shaky market for new offerings, WNS Holdings Ltd. rose in its stock market debut after pricing at the top of its range and boosting the size of its IPO Wednesday as the 10th listing from India to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
WNS (WNS : wns holdings ltd spon adr
Last: 24.50+3.40+16.11%
12:20am 07/27/2006
WNS24.50, +3.40, +16.1%) opened at $21.10, above its $20 price. The stock rose to close at $24.50 in recent trades, on volume of about 6.8 million shares.
The outsourcing company raised $224 million by offering 11.2 American depositary shares at $20 a share, the upper side of its $18-$20 range.
In a sign of keen investor interest, WNS increased its public offering to 11.2 million American depositary shares from its earlier size of 10.4 million.
BABAF6.95, +0.24, +3.6%) is among the shareholders of WNS selling a total of 6.73 million shares in the IPO. The airline said it sold its 14.6% stake for about $96 million. Private equity firm Warburg Pincus sold about 1.49 million shares.
WNS sold 4.47 million shares.
CEO Neeraj Bhargava said the company saw healthy demand for its IPO as it got ready to price because of growth in the outsourcing business.
Bhargava said other companies in India are interested in listing in the U.S. and that stricter U.S. regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley were not a hindrance to the IPO.
The company does business with many U.S. firms and sought out a listing on the NYSE, he said.
Nine other firms from India currently trade on the NYSE including Dr. Reddy's (RDY : dr reddys labs ltd adr
WNS reported $18.3 million in net income on revenue of $203 million in the fiscal year ended March 31, compared to a loss of $5.8 million on revenue of $162.2 million in the year-ago period. |
