GAIL India Ltd will kick off the roadshows for its forthcoming public issue on February 12.

"While the domestic roadshows will happen from February 12 to February 15, the overseas roadshows will be held from February 16 to February 23," Proshanto Banerjee, chairman, GAIL India said.

The overseas roadshows will be held in two legs: while Singapore, Hong Kong, London and Edinburgh will be covered in the first leg, New York, Boston and Los Angeles will be covered in the second.

However, as GAIL's balance sheet is not US GAAP-ready, there will be no overseas issue of shares.

These roadshows are targeted at attracting foreign institutional investors to the public offer and will showcase GAIL's achievements and future prospects.

The issue will hit the market on February 23, and will remain open for bidding in a price band. The price band will be decided a day before the issue opens.

The company has already launched an advertising campaign for the public offer. According to Banerjee, some more advertisements could follow in the days to come.

Meanwhile, GAIL has sought the government's permission to block five per cent of the offering for its employees.

The government is yet to convey its decision, Banerjee disclosed.

As per Sebi provisions, 25 per cent shares will be reserved for retail investors.

The company has filed a draft Red Herring prospectus with the Securities & Exchange Board of India in connection with the proposed public issue aimed at offloading government's 10 per cent holding.

The offer, totalling 84,565,160 equity shares, will be sold through the book-building route.

"We were able to file the prospectus in record time. We were informed by the government about the offer only in early-January," Banerjee added.