ECM activities: ICICI Securities takes pole position with Rs 9K-crore deals

The first quarter of 2021 was strong for ECM activity with 46 deals worth Rs 56,300 crore, an increase of nearly 50% over the same period of 2020

Domestic investment banking outfit ICICI Securities has grabbed the pole position on the league table for equity capital market (ECM) activity in 2021. At the end of the first quarter, the subsidiary of private sector lender ICICI Bank had a 17 per cent market share, handling 13 deals worth a cumulative Rs 9,051 crore, the data provided by Bloomberg shows.
 
US-headquartered BofA Securities was second in the league with a 12 per cent market share through five deals worth Rs 6,492 crore.
 
Larger deals handled by ICICI Securities during the quarter were block transactions in Bharti Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Tata Communications, and the Rs 4,633-crore IPO of Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC).
 
BofA handled Carlyle’s 10 per cent disinvestment in the SBI Cards, Brookfield India Real Estate Investment Trust, and qualified institutional placement (QIP) of Godrej Properties.
 
Kotak Mahindra and Axis Bank were in the third and fourth spots, handling 10 (worth Rs 5,403 crore) and 12 (worth Rs 4,444 crore) deals, respectively.
 
The first quarter of 2021 was strong for ECM activity with 46 deals worth a cumulative Rs 56,300 crore, an increase of nearly 50 per cent over the same period of 2020, the Bloomberg data shows.

 
The deal-making was underpinned by buoyancy in the secondary market. The Sensex rose nearly 10 per cent to touch an all-time high of 52,154 during the quarter. The markets, however, gave up most of the gains as investors turned risk-off amid the rise in US bond yields and resurgence in Covid-19 infections.
 
Market players said there are a number of deals in the pipeline which may hit the market during the June quarter. Bankers say about a dozen IPOs may hit the market during the quarter. Additionally, several listed companies are looking to raise capital through the QIP route and large existing shareholders can look to monetise their holdings.
 
However, overall volumes during the ongoing quarter could be lower than what we saw during the March quarter.
 
G Chokkalingam, founder, Equinomics, said: “We could see deals from certain sectors and stocks that are dominating the secondary market. But we don’t see the same level of exuberance we saw during the March quarter.”
 
Ambareesh Baliga, an independent market analyst, said the kind of activity seen in the IPO market during the March quarter won’t be repeated during the June quarter “unless we saw a bunch of IPOs come at extremely attractive valuations”.
 
In March, nine IPOs hit the market to raise a cumulative Rs 6,100 crore.