Nuziveedu Seeds Said to Appoint Goldman, IDFC to Manage IPO

Nuziveedu Seeds Pvt. picked five banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and IDFC Capital Ltd. to manage an initial share sale that may raise up to 8 billion rupees ($162 million), said people with knowledge of the matter.

The company, based in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, also selected Enam Securities Pvt., JM Financial Ltd. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) for the offering, which is expected to take place in the first half of 2012, the people said. They asked not to be named because the details are private.

Nuziveedu is preparing a share sale after proceeds raised in IPOs so far in 2011 tumbled to about a fifth of the level of the same period last year, according to Bloomberg data. The benchmark BSE India Sensitive Index has fallen 14 percent this year amid a global rout in equities and expectations that India’s economic growth will slow.

Nuziveedu Seeds Chairman M. Prabhakar Rao couldn’t be reached at his office and didn’t immediately respond to an e- mailed request for comment.

The company, the world’s third-largest producer of cotton seed, had revenue of more than 6 billion rupees last year, according to its website. Nuziveedu is a unit of NSL Group, which also owns businesses that produce sugar, textiles and power.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ruth David in Mumbai at rdavid9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Philip Lagerkranser at lagerkranser@bloomberg.net