Seoul/New Delhi, Oct 8 (IANS): Hyundai Motor said on Tuesday it has decided to sell a 17.5 per cent share in its Indian subsidiary for the initial public offering (IPO) it plans for this year.

The South Korean automaker said in a regulatory filing it will sell 142.19 million shares in Hyundai Motor India, bringing its share down to 82.5 percent.

Hyundai has not specified the exact date and the range for the IPO pricing, but it seeks to go public within this year with an aim to raise up to 4 trillion won ($2.96 billion) at about $20 billion IPO valuation, Yonhap news agency reported.

Hyundai Motor established the Indian subsidiary in 1996, and it would be the first carmaker to go public in India in around two decades, officials said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has approved Hyundai Motor India’s Rs 25,000 crore IPO that will open on October 14 for subscription. This would be the largest IPO of India after the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which was around Rs 21,000 crore.

After the listing, Hyundai India's market cap could be almost half the valuation of its Seoul-listed promoter company Hyundai Motors at $47 billion. Hyundai India is the second largest car company in the country after Maruti Suzuki. The company's market share is around 15 per cent. Nearly one in four Hyundai cars is sold in India now.

The automaker registered total sales of 64,201 units in September, with achieving total sales in the nine months (January-September period) of 5,77,711 units. The company has been consistently clocking 60,000 units per month for some time now, except the last few months as the automotive industry is going through a slow phase.