Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance [Get Quote] Power will give the retail investors a 5% price discount in its forthcoming Initial Public Offer (IPO), through which the company will raise up to Rs 11,700 crore, merchant bankers said.

The IPO is expected to hit the capital market between January 15 and18 with a price band of Rs 405-450 per share, the bankers close to the development said. Based on the upper limit of the price band, the company would raise Rs 11,700 crore (Rs 117 billion) with the sale of 26 crore shares in the public offer. This would be the biggest ever IPO in India, surpassing the public issue of realty giant DLF that had raised about Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) last year.

Reliance Power is believed to be the first to offer a discount in the IPO price for retail investors. Rating agency Crisil assigned an above average 4-on-5 rating to the proposed IPO of Reliance Power.

Reliance Power filed the draft prospectus for its IPO in the first week of October 2007 and received the go ahead from the market regulator SEBI last week on December 28.