Economic Survey 2023: Lacklustre year for primary markets but SME IPOs encouraging

In terms of overall IPO activity, the number of firms opting to list on the bourses increased by 37 percent to 448 between April - Nov 2022 compared to the same period a year-ago

The Economic Survey 2023 has said that the financial year 2022-23, so far, has been lackluster in terms of fund mobilisation through initial public offerings (IPOs) but the number of small and medium enterprises (SME) rushing to D-Street has been quite encouraging.

Between April and December 2022, around 85 SME companies came out with their public offerings. During the same period, BSE SME IPO index surged close to 73 percent.

"Compared to FY22 (until November 2021), this year, not only did the number of SMEs coming with IPOs almost double, but the total funds raised by them were almost three times the funds raised by them in the same period last year," said the Economic Survey that was tabled in Parliament on January 31.

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In terms of overall IPO activity, the number of firms opting to list on the bourses increased by 37 percent to 104 during the April-November 2022 period compared to the same period a year-ago.

The survey, however, said the amount raised by IPOs at Rs 48,095 crore declined to almost half of what was raised during April- November 2021 at Rs 89,166 crore.

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LIC’s IPO was the largest-ever in India and the sixth biggest globally in 2022. "Listing of LIC accounted for more than a third of resources mobilised in the primary equity market until November 2022," it added.

A total of Rs 1.14 lakh crore of resources were mobilised by 448 issues between April and November 2022, including IPOs, FPOs (follow-on public offer), rights issue, QIP (qualified institutional placements) and preferential allotments.

In the year-ago period, this stood at Rs 1.81 lakh crore by 350 issues.