Adfactors, Vaishnavi to manage TCS' Rs 5,000 crore IPO issue

The Adfactors group and Vaishnavi Corporate Communications will manage the forthcoming Rs 5,000 crore initial public offering (IPO) of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's number one software services company.

While Mumbai-headquartered Adfactors will be offering the entire range of advertising - pertaining to the issue as well as statutory, the PR services part -- during the IPO of TCS -- will be handled by Adfactors and Vaishnavi.

For the record, Vaishnavi had been handling the PR consulting for the Tata group for some time now, and is regarded as an in-house agency for the Tatas. The pre-issue corporate advertisements will be handled by FCB-Ulka -- the agency which had been handling the TCS account.

It is reliably learnt that the TCS account was keenly contested among at least seven agencies, including Concept and Saubhagya. "Agencies fight tooth-and-nail for public issues like this. It gives them instant visibility, respect and also a lot of money," said an industry source.

Adfactor's association with TCS is limited to the IPO. Commenting on the reason behind Adfactor's selection as one of the two PR agencies, sources close to TCS said, "There are many complex issues and many loose ends to be tied up during the marketing of an IPO as large as TCS. There will be roadshows and the message has to be spread across 40-50 cities and towns across India. It is virtually impossible for a single agency to handle all this work, and Vaishnavi is a comparatively new agency".

"Therefore, it was felt that since Adfactors has the capability and the right credentials in undertaking such a huge campaign, the two teams would work together for the IPO," they added.

This basically means while Vaishnavi will be playing a consultative role on corporate issues relevant to the IPO, Adfactors will be focusing on the strategy and the execution of the IPO campaign.

The TCS offering is going to be the biggest issue from the Indian private sector so far. The only other IPO which has beaten it is the one from state-owned ONGC, which had launched a mammoth Rs 10,000 crore issue earlier this year.

Sources from Dalal Street in Mumbai say that the Tata group is likely to be launching the TCS IPO in end-July/early-August. Company sources, however, declined to spell out the D-day. "This will be decided in the course of the next two-three weeks," they said.

TCS is yet to file its prospectus with the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India. © 2004 agencyfaqs!