Wonderla Holidays, an amusement park, plans to raise up to Rs 200 crore either through private equity or through an initial public offering.
Arun K. Chittilappilly, managing director of Wonderla, said the funds will be used to set up new amusement parks in Hyderabad and Chennai. Wonderla is part of the listed Rs 1,000-crore V-Guard company.
The Hyderabad project is expected to begin first and the Chennai project will start shortly thereafter once some land issues are resolved, said Chittilappilly. The company already operates amusement parks in Kochi and Bangalore.
He said that Wonderla is almost debt-free, so there should not be a problem attracting investors.
“In 2003, we had a debt of Rs 50 crore, but now, apart from a debt of Rs 15 crore on the resort, we don’t have any debts,” he said.
Regarding the possibility of an IPO, Chittilappilly said it was also one of the options before the company.
The company is not looking to expand beyond South India in the immediate future, he said. “First we want to expand in the South. We will look at North India later on, but not for the next five years.”