Gini & Jony plans an IPO

Gini & Jony Apparel Pvt Ltd, which owns the 'Gini & Jony' kid's lifestyle brand, is planning to hit the capital market with an initial public offer by the end of the current fiscal to raise Rs 75 crore (Rs 750 million) for funding its expansion plans.

"We have agreed in-principle to the idea and will start working on the red herring prospectus to be submitted to the Securities and Exchange Board of India from next month," company Prakash Lakhani, managing director said.

The 25-year old readymade garment manufacturing company proposes to increase its production capacity from the current 18 lakh pieces a year to 27 lakh units a year from the next year in its two plants in Daman and Baddi (Himachal Pradesh) and to increase the number of its exclusive brand outlets from

the existing 19 to 49 by the end of 2006 at an estimated investment of Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million).

The company also plans to open a one-stop shop for kids in future and envisages increasing its presence in large format stores from existing 65 to 80 by the end of 2006 and from 200 to 290 in multi brand outlets during the same period.

"Since money is a constraint for us to grow at the moment, we will chalk out our further expansion plans as we come out with the IPO," Harish Mehta, chief financial officer said.

Meanwhile, the company aims to increase its turnover from Rs 68 crore in the last fiscal year to Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) in the current fiscal and targets to achieve Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) within the next five years.