Revival signs in IPO market; two issues lined up this month

After a long lull, the IPO market is expected to see some action this month with at least two companies already having lined up their public offers to fund business expansion and meet working capital requirements.

Cable distribution firm Ortel Communications and Adlabs Entertainment, which runs an amusement park Adlabs Imagica, would hit the market this month.

Ortel would be the first company to float an Initial Public Offer this year, when it hits the market on March 3. It would be followed by Adlabs' IPO on March 10.

Ortel would offer up to 1.2 crore equity shares, comprising of 60 lakh fresh shares and an offer for sale of up to 60 lakh by existing shareholders.

Adlabs plans to issue 2.03 crore shares including 20 lakh shares offered for sale by the promoter.

Apart from these, many companies are expected to launch their IPOs in the coming months following the green signal received by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

Five companies -- Uniparts India, VRL Logistics, PNC Infratech, ACB (India) Ltd and Shree Pushkar Chemicals and Fertilizers -- got Sebi's go-ahead to float their respective IPOs last month.

Those having secured approvals in the past include Lavasa Corporation, MEP Infrastructure Developers and Inox Wind and they may also hit the markets in the coming months.

However, companies like Sadbhav Infrastructure Project, CL Educate, and Manpasand Beverages and UFO Moviez India are still awaiting regulatory go-ahead to launch their IPOs.

Most of the companies plan to utilise IPO proceeds for capacity expansion as well as working capital requirement.

"In 2015, we will see spurt in IPO activities as more than a dozen companies have filed their draft documents in 2014 ," Geojit BNP Paribas Research Head Alex Mathew said.

He further said that many companies, which scrapped their IPO plans earlier due to bad market conditions, are putting in fresh efforts to enter the capital markets

However, fund raising through IPOs was just Rs 1,528 crore in 2014 despite a buoyant secondary market.

Besides, only six main-board IPOs came to the market. The entire year saw just one follow-on offering. This was by state-run Engineers India Ltd (EIL), which also happens to be the biggest public offer with an issue size of Rs 495 crore.

The year, however, witnessed a flurry of activity on the small and medium enterprise (SME) platform. There were as many as 40 SME IPOs, which collected a total of Rs 267 crore.