Flurry of IPOs in 2nd half of year to offset tepid first half

The IPO (Initial public offering) market has not been able to match the bullish sentiment in the overall equity space, as about Rs 1,000 crore was raised through public offers in the first half of the current financial year.

However, Prime Database Managing Director Pranav Haldea said a flurry was expected in the remaining part of the current financial year, especially in the fourth quarter.

According to Prime Database, as many as 25 companies have collectively mopped only Rs 1,019 crore through IPOs during the April-September period in the current financial year.

This was in comparison to Rs 1,050 crore raked in by 16 companies in the six-month period ended September, 2013.

Significantly, of the 25 IPOs in the first half of the current financial year, 21 were from the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. There were only four non-SME IPOs, worth of Rs 851 crore. However, these accounted for 84 per cent of the total mobilisation.

The largest main board IPO was that of Sharda Cropchem (Rs 352 crore), while the largest SME public offer was that of Momai Apparels (Rs 30 crore).

"Though a bullish sentiment has prevailed in the market, because very few predicted a landslide victory for the National Democratic Alliance of the sort which was witnessed and because the IPO process is time consuming, there will be a lag of a few months before large ticket IPOs hit the market," Haldea said.

Currently, five companies planning to raise Rs 1,240 crore are holding Sebi's approval and another 11 firms intending to mop up Rs 4,707 crore have filed draft documents with market regulator and are awaiting its approval.