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Blackstone-owned Indian home loans provider Aadhar Housing Finance is targeting a $600-650 million initial public offering (IPO) at a valuation of up to $3 billion, two people with direct knowledge said on Tuesday.

Private equity group Blackstone acquired Aadhar for about $210 million in 2019 as it bet on growing demand for affordable housing and financing in India.

The IPO attempt is Aadhar's second shot at a listing after a $1 billion IPO plan in 2022 was called off amid market volatility that followed the Russia-Ukraine war.

Aadhar plans to file its IPO papers with India's market regulator within the next two weeks, both sources said.

India is currently seeing record stock market listing plans, driven by expectations of political stability and a fast-growing economy. Its stock market recently overtook that of Hong Kong to become the world's fourth biggest, and benchmark index Sensex is trading near record highs. "Blackstone wants to capitalise on these market conditions and sell a part of its stake. Timing is key to gradually sell down," said one of the two sources, who declined to be named as the IPO plan is still confidential. Aadhar has appointed investment banks Citi, Nomura and India's uploads/news/ipo 16.jpgas advisors for its latest IPO filing, with a listing in Mumbai planned by May, said the sources.

Blackstone, Nomura and Citi declined to comment. Kotak, ICICI and Aadhar did not respond to queries seeking comments.