India’s IPO market stands firm amid global carnage

The slowdown in the global initial public offerings has left India’s Deal Street largely untouched as the IPO mart continues its resilient performance despite a worsening geopolitical crisis in Eastern Europe, rising interest rates and falling risk appetite of investors.

India’s primary market has, so far, seen 16 companies raise more than Rs 40,942 crore through an IPO in the first five months of 2022, a 41 percent rise from the year-ago period, according to data available on Chittorgarh.com. In the first five months of 2021, 19 companies raised Rs 29,038 crore from the IPO market.

Life Insurance Corporation of India’s Rs 21,000-crore issue constitutes more than 50 percent of the total IPO value in 2022. But adjusting for the life insurance giant’s issue, IPO value on Deal Street has fallen by 31 percent from the comparable period a year ago, much lower than the global average.

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IPO markets in the West and globally have seen a collapse in value led by the US and Europe, where IPO values have plummeted 90 percent in the first five months, according to a Financial Times report that quoted data from Dealogic.

Globally, IPO values have nosedived 71 percent year-on-year in the first five months of 2022 to $81 billion from $283 billion, whereas, the number of listings has shrunk to 596 from 1,237 last year.

“I am not very surprised by this. There are still many growth opportunities in India since the cost of doing business is offset by the potential advantages,” said Utkarsh Sinha, managing director at Mumbai-based boutique investment banking firm Bexley Advisors.

Sinha said there were very few economies with scale where participation was possible for growth-seeking foreign capital and given the recent decline in China’s stature as an investment destination, “India is the only place growth-seeking capital can go”.

That said, performance of the issues that have listed on the bourses has been mixed, with seven of the 16 stocks trading below their IPO price.

LIC’s performance has been weak, as the stock has fallen 17 percent from its issue price of Rs 949.

Some of the IPOs got a cool response, with companies such as Ethos forced to cut down the issue size due to lack of interest from investors, while others such as Delhivery and LIC trimmed their valuations to ensure a successful IPO.

Companies have realised there is a lack of appetite among investors for richly priced issues after the disappointing performance of several startup IPOs, including Paytm-parent One 97 Communications, PolicyBazaar and Zomato, in 2021 but are still enthusiastic about prospects of raising capital from the market.

“There has been no aversion at all from promoters in terms of raising capital from the IPO market but people are trying to time their issues. Industry-wide, startups included, I don’t see any lull in interest for IPOs,” said a head of city-based investment bank on condition of anonymity citing internal regulations.