Meltdown dampens IPOs of 80 ICE companies

Share prices of leading ICE companies like Global Tele, HFCL, Satyam and Infosys have crashed by around 25 per cent in the last one month. Infosys which was quoting at around Rs 8,400 when it announced its first quarter results last month has now fallen to around Rs 6,300. The market cap of Infosys has fallen by over Rs 14,000 crore to Rs 41,631 crore in the last one month. The IT Index of the BSE has crashed by 1,374 points to 2,796.30 in the last one month.

“The current volatility in the stock markets has certainly taken away some sheen out of infotech IPOs. But once the markets improve, we will see more better-priced IPOs hitting the market,” says Pawan Dharnidharka, broker, Bombay Stock Exchange. However, the stock market condition is not likely to improve at least for the next one month. Brokers generally feel the stock market may witness yet another phase of rally around Diwali festival.

Said a merchant banker, “The market is bad and most of the companies are going slow on their IPO plans.” But, the other side of the story is that most of these IT companies are stuck with their medium-to-large size projects for lack of funds. A few of them (with no big project) have in fact shelved their IPO plans and are scouting for alternative source of funding.

While some companies are contemplating private placement, others are resorting to debt. Software companies generally have low exposure to debt and this provides them with enough leverage. Nevertheless, the market is still witnessing lot of par infotech IPOs. Although the investor response to these IPOs is not very good, they still manage to sail through as the size of these issues is very small.

The mood of investors can be gauged from their response to three major IPOs in the recent past. Arraycom had to return whatever little money they had collected from investors. SIP Technologies and Creative Eye had withdrawn their IPOs after receiving a not-so-impressive response to the bookbuilding portion. Stocks of several infotech companies which raised money through IPOs in the last three months are now quoting below their offer prices.

Several media and software companies have been talking about IPO plans for quite a long time, but yet to hit the market. Tips Industries, Tabassum International, Eider e-Commerce, Delta Systems, Popular Entertainment Network, MRO-Tek, FCS Software, Binary Semantics, Radient Software, Devgan Entertainment, Pritish Nandy Communication, Ampersand Software, SRA Systems and Nimbus are a few names to mention.

Sun TV, Gemini TV, NDTV, Enadu, UTV, Sony Television Entertaintment have all IPO plans. Aztec Software, Deldot Systems, Newgen Software, R Systems, Systems America and Applitech Solutions have also definite IPO plans.

Nevertheless, the current gloom should not be construed as death of the primary market. Says a merchant banking source, Many of those who are either deferring or going slow on their IPO are expecting a high premium which the current market may not support. But even in this market, reasonably priced issues are getting good public response, but the size of the oversubscription may be low compared to the IT IPO boom in the recent past. The investors will henceforth look for right-priced IPOs from promoters with credibility, market sources said.