Companies raised Rs 52,759 cr from IPOs till October this fiscal: Sitharaman

A total of Rs 52,759 crore has been raised by 61 companies through initial public offers till October this fiscal, higher than the funds mopped up through this route in the last financial year, the government told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Out of the 61 companies that hit the markets till October of the current fiscal, 34 entities were Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that a large number of manufacturing and service sector companies are coming up for listing. “IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) are being brought by the companies regularly this year, and the amount raised in the current financial year till the month of October 2021, has surpassed the amount raised in the last financial year,” she said.

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In the last fiscal, 56 companies garnered Rs 31,060 crore from IPOs and out of them, 27 were SMEs, as per the Sebi data cited by the minister. In a written reply, Sitharaman said that among the 61 IPOs, 35 were below Rs 100 crore, while four were in the range of Rs 100 crore and less than Rs 500 crore. As many as 22 IPOs were either equal to Rs 500 crore or more than Rs 500 crore. Among others, 10 companies out of the 61 entities were from the healthcare sector and 6 from “cement/ constructions”.

To a supplementary question on whether the Paytm IPO has caused problems for investors, the minister replied in the negative. First of all, there is an impression that the IPO of One97 Communications has caused problems for investors, but no problems have been caused for them, the minister said. “It (IPO) was subscribed more than what they (company) went for,” she pointed out. The IPO of One97 Communications received bids for 9.14 crore equity shares against the offer size of 4.83 crore shares, according to information available with stock exchanges on November 10. The price band was fixed at Rs 2,080-2,150 per share.

The Rs 18,300 crore IPO was oversubscribed 1.89 times on the last day of India’s biggest share sale. However, the scrip made a weak debut on the stock exchanges on November 18 and had tumbled over 27 per cent during the day from the issue price of Rs 2,150. Replying to a question related to strengthening the infrastructure of trading platforms from the point of view of the cyber domain, Sitharaman said many steps have been taken by all the concerned institutions.

“There are very many checks and balances and plan B, which are in place as a result of which I feel that measures are taken (in a) timely (manner)… they are also taken by institutions with periodic trial and error kind of method. “I am assured by the Sebi, NSE and BSE that they are taking all kinds of precautions… every time there is a periodic review and anything that has to be strengthened to make sure that it is digitally safeguarded is happening,” she said.