The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Mundra Port & Special Economic Zone Ltd. has received an excellent response and was over subscribed within few hours of opening the bids on Thursday.

As per the National Stock Exchange (NSE) web site, at 11:00 am, the issue received bids for 105.19mn shares against issue size of 40.25mn shares on offer.

The Rs 10 shares are being offered in the price band Rs 400-440 per shares. The IPO will close on November 7, 2007.

The issue comprises a reservation of 24,060,000 shares allocated for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs), 4,010,000 shares for Non Institutional Investors, 12,030,000 shares for Retail Individual Investors (RIIs) and 150,000 for employees.

The Issue and the Net Issue will constitute 10.05% and 10.01% respectively of the fully diluted post issue paid-up capital of the company.

Ameet Desai, Executive Director of the company said “Mundra Port is primarily engaged in providing bulk cargo services, container cargo, crude oil cargo and value-added port services, including railway services between Mundra Port and Adipur”.

The company has the exclusive right to develop and operate Mundra Port and related facilities until February 2031 pursuant to the concession agreement entered on February 17, 2001 with the Gujarat Maritime Board and the Government of Gujarat.

The funds raised would be mainly used for construction and development of basic infrastructure and allied facilities at the proposed SEZ at Mundra; construction and development of a terminal for coal and other cargo at Mundra Port.

The book running lead mangers to the issue are Kotak Mahindra Capital, Enam Securities, ICICI Securities, DSP Merrill Lynch, SBI Capital Markets, SSKI Corporate Finance and JM Financial Consultants.

The equity shares of the company, offered through this IPO, are proposed to be listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).