'Auto, pharma, and industrials have delivered well in the recent quarter, while businesses like quick-service restaurants, consumer staples, and durables have underperformed in volume growth.'
Investor confidence in unlisted shares was shaken after recent developments that saw online drugstore PharmEasy issuing new shares in a rights issue at a 90 per cent discount to its previous valuations and Reliance Retail's move to buy back and cancel shares held by public investors. Both stocks were, at one time, very popular in the unlisted market, with canny investors cornering them with the objective of benefiting from their listing. "Since investors have suffered losses on both counts, they will be careful when it comes to dealing in shares of unlisted companies," observes a broker dealing in unlisted shares, adding that there will be some rationality to the pricing.
Funding winter and corporate governance woes separated the men from the boys in the country's startup space in 2023 that saw funds into the segment tapering to just around $8 billion. All said, investors are hopeful of strong growth of the maturing startup ecosystem in the new year. Edtech and health tech segments that grew exponentially during the pandemic plunged into an abyss of financial uncertainties, with several firms shuttering their business, and valuation of prominent players like BYJU'S and PharmEasy plummeting 85-90 per cent.
Has Vijay Shekhar Sharma given up on the bank? For now, he seems to be on a save-OCL mission. The bank will face its logical end, observes Tamal Bandopadhyay.
'A key reason for the strong interest in IPOs has been an increased focus on profitability and reasonable pricing of deals.'
A new regulation concerning the disclosure of family arrangements by listed companies is exacerbating rifts between feuding shareholders. The latest example is Bengaluru-based TD Power Systems (TDPS), currently enmeshed in a legal dispute before the Karnataka high court over ownership of its 16 per cent equity. Vijay Kirloskar, who is asserting a claim over the 16 per cent stake held by Mohib Khericha (chairperson of TDPS) and Nikhil Kumar (managing director of TDPS and nephew of Kirloskar), has sent a letter to the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), and stock exchanges. He accuses TDPS of insufficient disclosure concerning shareholder agreements.
'We will continue to build new engines of growth in terms of innovations, enter newer categories, and look at newer propositions.'
Flipkart, the e-commerce company owned by Walmart, is intensifying its efforts to achieve profitability as it is eyeing a valuation of approximately $60 billion at the time of its initial public offering (IPO), now planned in 2025-2026, instead of this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The firm might consider listing in the US or any other geography, including India. The company, which counts the likes of Amazon and Reliance's JioMart among its competitors in India's burgeoning e-commerce market, had also contemplated launching an IPO in 2022-2023.
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has proposed key exemptions to the current listing framework and measures for setting up holding companies (holdcos) and special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to encourage domestic startups list at GIFT City, the country's only international financial services centre (IFSC). Under the current framework, to be eligible to list on IFSC exchanges, an issuing company should have operating revenue of at least $20 million in the preceding financial year and average pre-tax profits of at least $1 million during the preceding three financial years. An expert committee has noted these conditions have acted as hurdles to listing new-age companies, and they need a relook.
'The deal pipeline across products is robust for 2024.'
India's largest insurer LIC is likely to list on the stock exchanges on May 17, a week after its bumper initial public offering (IPO) closes. The government is selling over 22.13 crore shares in LIC at a price band of Rs 902-949 a piece in the initial public offering, which opens on May 4 and closes on May 9. As per the final papers filed with Sebi, the allotment of shares to the demat account of bidders will happen by May 16, post which LIC would commence trading of equity shares in the stock exchanges and list "on or about May 17".
The shift to a shorter T+3 settlement cycle for initial public offerings (IPOs) will be a big test of the domestic market structure, requiring players in the ecosystem to work harder to meet the squeezed timelines, according to industry insiders. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), has announced that the transition to the T+3 cycle will be voluntary starting next month and mandatory from December 1. The new mechanism will necessitate quicker confirmations from banks and speedy verification of permanent account numbers (PANs) for all applicants.
Patience can be rewarding. 'Post-listing, sanity often returns to valuations of newly-listed businesses within six to nine months. Buy then.'
Indian sweet, snack, and restaurant chain group Bikanervala, with revenues of over Rs 3,000 crore, is working towards an initial public offering (IPO) for its food company in the next three years. Before that, it could also bring in private equity (PE) investors. The low-profile Aggarwal family-owned group company, Bikanervala Foods (which also sells under the brand name Bikano), operates in the snack business.
The power sector is always strongly correlated to economic activity and is receiving its share of investor attention as India's post-Covid-19 recovery continues. India's leading integrated power producer, the public sector undertaking (PSU) NTPC controls around 25 per cent of India's power capacity. It continues to increase installed capacity, in thermal as well as renewables (solar, wind, green hydrogen) and hydropower and pumped hydro, and also has backward integration into coal mining, and explored nuclear.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that all ASBA-designated bank branches will remain open for public on Sunday to facilitate processing of applications for LIC's initial public offering. State-owned LIC's Initial Public Offering (IPO), the country's biggest ever offer, opened for subscription by retail and institutional investors on Wednesday. The offer will close on May 9 and there will be bidding on May 7 (Saturday) also.
Reliance Industries' (RIL's) retail arm, Reliance Retail, is now valued at nearly twice the amount of its decades-old and lucrative oil-to-chemical (O2C) division. Bernstein's latest report on the conglomerate projects a valuation of $112 billion for its retail business, dwarfing the $57 billion valuation of its O2C division. In addition, the research firm valued Jio Platforms, the company's telecom arm, at $77 billion and the renewable energy business at $17 billion.
The turmoil in the markets has been cited as the reason for the dip in the IPO market.
LIC public offer will remain open for subscription even on weekend to enable people to participate in the mega IPO of the state-owned insurer. This is perhaps for the first time the special dispensation is granted to any public offer. The issue period also includes bidding on Saturday, May 7, 2022 and Sunday, May 8, 2022, LIC informed exchanges. Earlier bidding was allowed on May 7 (Saturday) only.
The decline in LIC's share price makes it the biggest wealth destroyer among IPOs which hit the market after COVID-19 took hold globally in 2020.
The move might delay the Gurugram-based hospitality unicorn's initial public offering (IPO). OYO filed preliminary documents with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in September 2021 for a Rs 8,430 crore IPO.
Shares of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India hit fresh record lows amid sustained decline in Adani Group stocks. Its stock finished at Rs 567.8, down 2.9 per cent over its previous close. The state-owned insurer's market value is now down Rs 2.4 trillion, or 40 per cent, compared to initial public offering levels.
The initial public offering (IPO) market has seen some momentum of late with robust responses to recent issues. However, only some have been able to ride the wave. So far in 2023, 23 companies have let their approval granted by the markets regulator - the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) - lapse.
The value of MF exposure to REITs and InvITs which was at Rs 734 crore at the end of March 2020, rose to Rs 5,200 crore by the end of March 2023.
Oravel Stays Ltd, which operates travel tech firm and brand OYO, on Wednesday said it will refile its draft public listing application by the middle of next month. Earlier this month capital markets regulator Sebi had asked the company to refile the draft initial public offering (IPO) papers with certain updates. "We are working on updating all key sections simultaneously.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in India are expected to stay buoyant, seen over the last three-four years, despite a slowdown in the first seven months of the calendar year. "M&A is a lumpy business activity, and we may suddenly see large deals taking place during the next two quarters of the calendar year. "This would help maintain the streak of strong M&A activity.
Companies, which missed out on listing earlier, are giving it another shot but with significantly-reduced issue sizes. In the recent past, companies such as TVS Supply Chain Solutions, Suraj Estate Developers, and ESAF Small Finance Bank have re-filed their draft red herring prospectuses (DRHPs) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). This came after they slashed their issue sizes by 20-60 per cent.
It is pouring heavily not only in North India, but at Dalal Street too. However, the latter is seeing a flurry of initial public offers (IPOs). After a busy fortnight that ended on July 7 with seven IPOs - IdeaForge Technology, Cyient DLM, PKH Ventures, Pentagon Rubber, Global Pet Industries, Tridhya Tech, and Synoptics Technologies -- four more IPOs will hit the Street this week, including one mainboard IPO of Utkarsh Small Finance Bank. That apart, India's largest securities' depository National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for an IPO.
The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), which is still awaiting regulatory approval for its initial public offering (IPO), is now planning to streamline the process of buying the unlisted stocks of the company, thereby reducing the time taken for such deals from about four months to just a week. The management of India's biggest stock exchange has affirmed that it is working to reduce the time taken. According to the analysts, certain approvals required at present from NSE for buying stocks, are adding to the processing time.
Zaggle Prepaid, Cyient DLM, Healthvista India, Rashi Peripherals and Vishwaraj Sugar Industries have obtained the green signal to launch their initial public offerings (IPOs). The approvals come at a time when capital raising by way of IPOs has slowed to a crawl, with only four issues hitting the market so far this calendar year. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued final observation letters on their draft red herring prospectuses (DRHPs), which is akin to getting approval to hit the markets.
The legal battle between Byju's and lenders in the US on the edtech firm's $1.2-billion term loan B (TLB), along with the company skipping an interest payment of $40 million on the loan, has made the other investor Davidson Kempner Capital Management, "extremely concerned", according to the people familiar with the matter. They said Byju's has closed a Rs 2,000-crore ($250 million) round from the US-based investment firm and it may stop or consider slowing down the flow of various tranches of that capital to the company. It may also decide not to provide any new funding or participate in any such round in the future, the sources said.
Oravel Stays - which operates hospitality tech firm OYO - on Friday pre-filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus with stock market regulator Sebi, sources said. Sources close to the company told PTI, OYO may launch its initial public offering (IPO) around Diwali this year. Unlike the traditional route where companies have to launch the IPO within 12 months from the Sebi approval, or final observation; in the pre-filing route, an IPO can be floated within 18 months from the date of Sebi's final comments.
The story of Sahara India Pariwar founder Subrata Roy, who died in Mumbai on November 14 aged 75, is the stuff of movies - of a spectacular rise and an equally spectacular fall. Born in Araria, Bihar, Roy was 30 when he set up Sahara in 1978. He started with a capital of about Rs 2,000, a peon, a clerk and his father's Lambretta scooter in Gorakhpur, eastern Uttar Pradesh, writes Tamal Bandyopadhyay in his 2014 book, Sahara: The Untold Story. Sahara was not his first venture.
E-commerce player Meesho, backed by marquee investors like SoftBank Group and Meta Platforms, will look at an initial public offering (IPO) only in 2025, and till then, its focus will be on generating profits after tax and not just on being Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation)-positive, top sources in the company told Business Standard in New Delhi. In a clear shift of strategy, the company, which has reduced its cash burn by 85 per cent, is now looking to trim its annual revenue growth target to 40 per cent from the 100-plus per cent earlier. The sources, however, said even this level of growth was far higher than that of most e-commerce companies.
Three companies -- FirstMeridian Business Services Ltd, IRM Energy Ltd and Lohia Corp -- have received capital markets regulator Sebi's go-ahead to raise funds through initial public offerings (IPOs). These firms, which filed their preliminary IPO papers with the markets regulator between September 2022 and January 2023, obtained the observation letters during February 21-24, an update with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed on Tuesday. In Sebi parlance, observation implies go-ahead to the company to float the initial share-sale.
LIC public offer, the country's biggest-ever IPO, on Wednesday opened for subscription for retail and institutional investors. The government aims to generate about Rs 21,000 crore by diluting its 3.5 per cent stake in the insurance behemoth. The LIC initial public offering (IPO), now open for retail and institutional investors, is set to close on May 9. LIC has fixed the price band at Rs 902-949 per equity share for the issue.
Department of investment and public asset management secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey on Tuesday said the weak debut of the country's largest insurer LIC on the bourses was due to unpredictable market conditions and suggested investors to hold on to the stock for long-term value.
With regulatory uncertainties clouding the future of online pharmacies, deals in the space are showing signs of slowdown, as also fresh investment from private-equity (PE) firms and venture capitalists (VCs). The data from Venture Intelligence shows so far in 2023 (as of June 13) there has been one deal with PE-VC funding. In 2022 there were four, a sharp fall from the 12, totalling $1,520 million, the sector had attracted in 2021.
Walmart, the world's largest retailer, has paid $1.4 billion to buy out US-based Tiger Global's investment in e-commerce firm Flipkart, according to sources. The transaction puts Flipkart's valuation at $35 billion, against nearly $38 billion in 2021 when it raised funds from Japan's SoftBank, Walmart, and other investors. Tiger Global, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, and Accel now have all fully exited the e-commerce firm by selling their stake to Walmart.
UBS stepping in to save Credit Suisse with a $3.2-billion acquisition has provided the beleaguered Swiss bank's India employees a glimmer of hope. The surprise deal - engineered by the Swiss government - has triggered optimism of fewer job losses at Credit Suisse's India unit and better synergies at key verticals, such as wealth management and investment banking. "UBS is a much stronger hand. Coming within its fold will give Credit Suisse's wealth management and investment banking divisions a good home.
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