MUMBAI, Jan 15: India’s biggest ever share offer by Reliance Power was some 10 times oversubscribed only a few hours after it opened on Tuesday with the aim of raising nearly $3 billion, a banker said.

The offer was fully subscribed in just 60 seconds earlier in the day, the banker said, as investors scrambled for a piece of the action in India’s booming economy and stock market.

“The issue saw strong institutional and high net worth individual demand at the higher end of the price band,” said the merchant banker, who is close to the share issue but wished to remain anonymous.

The initial public offering comes as the government strives to invest hundreds of billions of dollars revitalising India’s creaky infrastructure in a bid to maintain high economic growth.

There were bids for 2.39 billion shares, more than 10 times the 228 million Reliance Power shares available, stock exchange data showed by late afternoon, even though the offer runs until January 18.

“Investors seem to be confident in the future of the Indian economy,” the country’s finance minister P. Chidambram told the Press Trust of India amid the stampede for a stake in the company.

Reliance Power is offering a total of 260 million shares, or 10.1 per cent of its capital, with the extra 32 million shares allotted to Reliance group firms. The stock was priced at 405 to 450 rupees.

The company, owned by Indian tycoon Anil Ambani, aims to raise between 105 billion and 115 billion rupees ($2.6 to $2.9bn).

Some experts forecast the Indian economy’s energy demands may create a booming business, though others are wary that investors may have become too exuberant as the firm currently has little operating capacity.

The firm is a subsidiary of Reliance Energy, which has said the money raised will fund power generation projects. Reliance Power is developing 13 medium and large power projects with a combined planned capacity of 28,200 megawatts.

India’s previous biggest initial public offering was by the property giant DLF, which raised $2.24 billion last July.—AFP