Indian IPOs Pick up After Four-Month Break

(Bloomberg) -- Initial public offerings in India are picking up again after a four-month hiatus, during which the market was dominated by follow-on share sales and block trades.

Rossari Biotech Ltd., a Mumbai-based specialty chemicals maker, is looking to raise as much as $66 million and last week received orders for 79.4 times the shares offered in a sign of strong demand. Meanwhile, a Blackstone Group Inc.-backed real estate investment trust, Mindspace Business Parks REIT, plans to raise as much as about $600 million in what would be the country's second REIT IPO.

The two deals come after first-time share sales largely dried up in the South Asian country. The last big IPO was the $1.44 billion listing of SBI Cards & Payment Services Ltd. in March. Following that, there have been a number of tiny deals with only one raising more than $1 million, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

India's equity markets have recovered significantly since they hit a trough in March, along with many of the region's other indexes. The S&P BSE Sensex is up 44% from March 23, as is the the NSE Nifty 50.

While IPOs were quiet, India's equity capital markets were nevertheless busy with follow-on offerings as companies sought funds to weather the coronavirus-induced lockdown and shareholders sold stakes. In May, some $5.44 billion worth of existing and new shares were sold in a record month for equity offerings. June saw 10 follow-on offerings raise $2.43 billion, the most in terms of deal count in a year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Investors may still have to wait a while for India's unicorns -- such as Ola, Flipkart and Paytm -- to go public though. Softbank-backed online insurance platform Policybazaar aims to list in 2021, potentially becoming the first of the mega-startups to debut.

Read More: SoftBank-Backed Fintech Startup Seeks $3.5 Billion Value in IPO

UPCOMING LISTINGS:

• Li Auto
  • Nasdaq
  • Size $1b
  • Filed July 10
  • Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, CICC
• Hangzhou Tigermed Consulting
  • Hong Kong stock exchange
  • Size $1b
  • Pre-marketing July 20-24
  • BofA, Haitong, CLSA, CICC
  • Gland Pharma
    • India stock exchanges
    • Filed July 10
    • Citi, Haitong, Nomura, Kotak
    • Mindspace REIT
      • India stock exchanges
      • Size up to $598m
      • Anchor books open July 24, listing around Aug. 12
      • Morgan Stanley, BofA, Axis Capital, Citi, JM Financial, Kotak Mahindra, CLSA, Nomura, UBS, Ambit Capital, HDFC Bank, IDFC Bank, ICICI Securities
      • AREIT
        • Philippines stock exchange
        • Size up to $272m
        • Pricing July 22, trading Aug. 13
        • BPI Capital, UBS

        More ECM situations we are following:

        • Online insurance platform Policybazaar aims to go public in 2021 at a valuation north of $3.5 billion, potentially becoming the first of India's mega-startups to debut as its digital economy booms.
        • Everest Medicines Ltd. filed an application to list shares in Hong Kong.
        • Hangzhou Tigermed Consulting Co. will gauge investor demand for its Hong Kong listing from July 20-24, according to the terms of the deal obtained by Bloomberg News.

        See also:

        • Asia ECM Weekly Agenda
        • IPO data
        • U.S. ECM Watch
        • EU ECM Watch
        • To receive the ECM Watch in your inbox daily, click the “subscribe” button at the top of this article.

        ©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

        Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.