Mumbai: Fiscal 2016-17 was a bumper year for public offers by small and medium companies. According to data compiled by Prime Database, there were as many as 78 SME IPOs which collected a total of Rs. 807 crore in FY17, as against 50 IPOs raising Rs. 311 crore in FY16.

In fact, this is a huge increase from FY12 when there was just one issue which raised Rs. 7 crore.

An SME IPO last week by Udaipur-based Bohra Industries mopped up more than Rs. 80 crore, after its offer was subscribed 3.23 times. The issue also saw the first-ever investment by a foreign portfolio investor in an SME IPO.

On the main-board, there were 25 companies going public this year and they collected Rs. 28,211 crore from the market, almost double that of the Rs. 14,500 crore raised via this route last year.

Dip in OFS via exchange

On the whole, 2016-17 witnessed Rs. 51,288 crore through the public equity markets, 5 per cent higher than Rs. 48,991 crore that was raised in the preceding year. Including the public bond market, however, the total for the fiscal stood at Rs. 80,741 crore, down from Rs. 82,803 crore the previous year.

According to Prime Database, offer-for-sale through stock exchanges, which is for dilution of promoters’ holdings, saw a major decrease from Rs. 19,822 crore raised last year to just Rs. 8,390 crore this year. This too was accounted for primarily by the government’s divestment at Rs. 6,374 crore (76 per cent of the overall amount).

The largest OFS was that of NHPC in April ( Rs. 2,735 crore). Meanwhile, already listed companies continued to raise funds from institutional investors through the QIP route, with 22 companies mobilising Rs. 13,871 crore, a minor fall from the Rs. 14,358 crore raised in the previous year. The largest QIP of 2016-17 was from YES Bank raising Rs. 4,907 crore, accounting for 35 per cent of the total qualified institutional placement (QIP) amount.

As for divestments, 2016-17 was the best ever year with Rs. 40,997 crore being raised by the government, which was 90 per cent of the revised targeted amount of Rs. 45,500 crore and 73 per cent of the original target of Rs. 56,500 crore for the year. Buybacks of Nalco, MOIL, NMDC, CIL, and BEL constituted the lion’s share of divestment with proceeds to the tune of Rs. 15,645 crore.

According to Pranav Haldea, Managing Director, Prime Database, 2017-18 also looks promising, with 13 companies holding SEBI’s approval to raise over Rs. 9,230 crore and another 10 companies wanting to raise about Rs. 16,736 crore awaiting SEBI approval

Source: The Hindu Business Line