MUMBAI: The Indian Film Company made its debut on the overseas bourses at the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), which is operated by the London Stock Exchange.

Shares of The Indian Film Company Plc, which is jointly owned by Television Eighteen and Viacom, were placed at 100 pence (£1) per share raising £55 million via the listing.

The company, which will operate as an India-focused motion picture company with outsourced production and distribution functions, placed 55,000,000 ordinary shares giving it a market capitalisation of £55 million.

Shares rose as much to 120 pence (up 20 per cent) on their debut and were trading at 110.500 pence at the time of filing this report (9.30 pm IST).

The Indian Film Company is a group set up to invest in the Indian film industry, in a diverse portfolio of Indian films.

TV18 Group managing director and The Indian Film Company director Raghav Bahl said, “We are excited about the growth potential for The Indian Film Company on AIM. It will enable high quality international investors to reap the benefits of the structural changes and growth opportunities being thrown up by the Indian film industry.”

The company’s target is to hold investments in a diversified portfolio of approximately 30 to 40 film projects. The size of investments in individual film projects would initially range from £1 million to £7 million.

Grant Thornton Corporate Finance is the company’s nominated adviser and Elara Capital plc and Oriel Securities Limited are the company’s joint brokers. Access Financial Services acted as the Indian financial adviser to the company.