A total of Rs 1,61,116 crore was raised through various equity market routes in 2017, the highest ever mop-up in a calendar year, with IPOs and QIPs dominating the scene, says a report by PRIME Database.
"2017 witnessed raising of Rs 1.6 lakh crore through the public equity market, 3.6 times the amount raised in the preceding year," said Pranav Haldea, Managing Director, PRIME Database.
This is the highest ever amount raised in a calendar year, with the previous highest being Rs 97,746 crore in 2010.
"2018 looks even more promising. On the IPO front, already at the beginning of the year, there are 15 companies holding Sebi approval wanting to raise nearly Rs 12,000 crore and another 10 firms hoping to raise nearly Rs 19,000 crore awaiting approval," said Haldea.
2017 was also the best year ever for the initial public offer (IPO) market by far at Rs 68,826 crore, the previous highest being in 2010 when Rs 37,535 crore was raised, Haldea said. As many as 36 main-board IPOs came to the market collectively raising Rs 67,147 crore, with the largest by General Insurance Corp worth Rs 11,257 crore.
The overall response from the public to the mainboard IPOs of the year was also very good, the report said.
While 17 IPOs received a mega response of more than 10 times, the rest 13 offers were oversubscribed between 1 and 3 times.
As far as retail investors are concerned, the year witnessed a very good response from them as well. The highest number of applications was received by Cochin Shipyard at 19.42 lakh followed by HUDCO (18.74 lakh).
Response to the IPOs was further buoyed by strong listing performance, Haldea added. Of the 36 IPOs which got listed, 18 gave a return of over percentent, the report noted.
Last year also witnessed significant activity in the SME platform. There were as many as 133 SME IPOs, the highest ever, which collected a total of Rs 1,679 crore.
According to PRIME, offers for sale through stock exchanges, which is for dilution of promoters holding, saw an increase from Rs 13,066 crore raised in 2016 to Rs 19,208 crore raised last year.
The largest OFS was that of NTPC in August (Rs 9,192 crore) followed by BEL in February (Rs 1,687 crore). OFS accounted for 12 per cent of the total Rs 1,61,116 crore market amount, it said.
Already-listed companies found the QIP route very attractive, with 44 companies mobilising Rs 61,118 crore, the highest ever. The largest QIP of 2017 was from SBI raising Rs 15,000 crore, accounting for 25 per cent of the total QIP amount. Only two companies used the IPP route, mobilising Rs 4,668 crore.
Of the total, the amount raised through fresh capital was Rs 86,176 crore (53 per cent), the remaining Rs 74,940 crore being offer for sale.
The report further said 2017 was the best year ever with Rs 73,282 crore raised by the government.
Public offers (IPOs of HUDCO, Cochin Shipyard, GIC, New India Assurance and OFS of MOIL, BEL, NALCO, RCFL, NFL, HCL, NTPC, NLC) constituted a lion’s share of divestment proceeds at Rs 33,418 crore.
This was followed by ETFs at Rs 23,000 crore, block deals (SUUTI sales of L&T and ITC) at Rs 10,844 crore, buybacks (NHPC, NLC, OIL, EIL, Bharat Dynamics) at Rs 5,627 crore and sale of shares to employees at Rs 394 crore, it said.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!