Godrej Properties Ltd, the realty arm of the diversified Godrej group, has filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI for an initial public offering (IPO) to lift funds in order to fulfill company’s expansion requirement.

The company is expecting to raise about Rs 600 crore from the primary market through the proposed IPO of 9,429,750 equity shares of Rs 10 each through 100 per cent book building process.

ICICI Securities Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd are the BRLMs for the Issue.

A company release said, “The company currently has real estate development projects in 11 cities in the country at various stages of development. As of May 15, 2008, it has completed a total of 19 projects consisting 13 residential and 6 commercial projects, aggregating approximately 3.62 million sq ft of area that can be developed,” the company said.

“Godrej Properties’ land reserves currently stand at 404 acres, aggregating to approximately 78.87 million sq ft of developable area and 54.98 million sq ft of saleable area.”

Currently, Godrej Industries Ltd holds 81.41% of the equity share capital of Godrej Properties.

Indian Realty firms, which mopped up a third of all public offer funds during the last year (2007), have stayed away from the primary market after Emaar MGF withdrew its 1.6-billion dollar IPO in January.