A slew of public issues are waiting to hit the capital market before December 15, post which foreign investors would go on a holiday.
Taking advantage of the buoyant sentiment in the primary markets post-Coal India listing, as many as 10 initial public offerings (IPOs) and follow-on public offerings (FPOs) have been lined up, which could cumulatively raise over Rs 10,000 crore. ?A lot of companies are trying to hit the market before December 15 as foreign fund managers go on a holiday after that,? said A Murugappan, executive director, ICICI Securities.
The government has lined up three deals before the holiday period for foreign investor begins. These include MOIL IPO, which opens on November 26, followed by Shipping Corporation FPO, which will open on November 30 and Hindustan Copper which is likely in the first week of December. ?The government generally spaces out its offerings but due to the time crunch, it is launching back-to-back issues,? said an investment banker who didn?t wish to be quoted. ?But all the issues will go through easily as they are relatively small in size,? he added. ?You can?t fit it in any other way. So it?s okay. There is enough appetite, the performance in the recent past has shown that,? said Minakshi Ghose, joint secretary in the ministry of divestment, when questioned on the overlap of issues.
Some of the large-sized deals in the private space that could take place before December 15 include, the over Rs 2,000-crore IPOs of real estate firms Lavasa Corporation and Embassy Property Developments and Rs 900 crore offering of Nimbus Communications. Lavasa has got Sebi clearance for the IPO, while Embassy and Nimbus are waiting for Sebi nod. ?Many companies are waiting for the final Sebi nod so that they can launch there IPOs before the dry period starts, otherwise they will have to wait till next year,? said Satyen Shah, senior vice-president & head-ECM, Edelweiss Capital. No issues are expected to hit the market between December 15 and January 10, say bankers.