Coffee Day eyes $1 billion valuation with biggest Indian IPO in 3 yrs

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd, which runs the nation's biggest coffee chain, said it is eyeing a valuation of as much as 67.5 billion rupees ($1.04 billion) based on the issue price of its initial public offering next week that will be the biggest in the local market in nearly three years. Coffee Day, which is selling new shares in the IPO, will dilute as much as 17.55 percent on a post-issue basis to raise up to 11.5 billion rupees, according to a presentation made at a company news conference on Wednesday. The company will sell 3.4 billion rupees worth of shares to cornerstone investors ahead of the IPO, managers to the IPO said. It is selling shares in a price range of 316 to 328 rupees in the issue that will open on Oct. 14 and close on Oct. 16. Coffee Day Enterprises, which counts private equity KKR and New Silk Route among its investors, runs the Cafe Coffee Day cafes with more than 1,500 stores in India and 14 overseas. It also owns about 16 percent of software services exporter MindTree Ltd and about 53 percent in Sical Logistics Ltd. Cafe Coffee Day competes with Starbucks Corp, Whitbread Plc's Costa Coffee, and Barista among others in a primarily tea-drinking country that has in recent years seen a surge in coffee consumption. ($1 = 65.1000 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Abhishek Vishnoi; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)