Busiest Week For Primary Markets Since Oct. 30

Four initial public offerings will open this week to raise as much as Rs 9,740 crore, making it the busiest week for the primary market in the last five months.

Bharat Dynamics Ltd., Bandhan Bank Ltd., Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and Karda Constructions Ltd. will be looking to raise money either through offers for sale and/or fresh issuances.

The last time the primary markets witnessed such hectic activity was in the week starting Oct. 30 when three companies raised Rs 11,000 crore.

This time the bulk of the money raised will be used to provide partial exit to promoters and investors. Bharat Dynamics and Hindustan Aeronautics are going public only to allow the government to sell shares.

Bandhan Bank's IPO will allow International Finance Corporation sell part of its stake, and the rest of the proceeds will be used by the bank to expand its capital base. Karda Construction is raising money to provide a partial exit to its promoters and repay debt.

Here's a snapshot of the companies launching their IPOs this week.

Bharat Dynamics

Bharat Dynamics is a public sector defence unit which manufactures guided missile systems. The company has a product portfolio consisting of surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank guided missiles, underwater weapons, launchers, countermeasures and test equipment.

Currently, it is the sole supplier of SAMs and ATGMs to the Indian Army. It has three manufacturing facilities in Hyderabad, Bhanur and Visakhapatnam. It is a Miniratna company and is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence.

The Hyderabad-headquartered company's order book stood at Rs 10,543 crore as of Jan. 31, which provides revenue visibility of over two years. The company has been consistently paying dividends and had more than Rs 1,300 crore in cash as of Sept. 30, 2017.

Also Read: Bharat Dynamics IPO Will Fetch Government Up To Rs 960 Crore

Bandhan Bank

Bandhan Bank, which began banking operations from August 2015, was earlier India's largest microfinance company. As of Dec. 31, the bank had 887 branches with 430 ATMs, serving more than 21.3 lakh customers.

It has a strong presence in east and north-east India with more than 55 percent of its total branches located in these regions. The bank has a loan book of close to Rs 24,434 crore as of Dec. 31, of which more than 85 percent accounts for micro loans.

So far, the bank has never paid dividends to its shareholders.

Also Read: GIC-Backed Bandhan Bank's Indian IPO to Raise Up to $689 Million

Hindustan Aeronautics

Hindustan Aeronautics is India's largest defence public sector unit and the 39th largest aerospace company in the world. The company designs, develops, manufactures, repairs, overhauls, upgrades and services aircraft, helicopters, aero-engines, avionics, accessories and aerospace structures.

The Navratna company has five complexes which together include 20 production divisions and 11 research and design centres across India. The company had an order book of Rs 68,461 crore, as of Dec. 31, which provides revenue visibility of over three years.

The company has been consistently paying dividends and had more than Rs 11,600 crore in cash as of Sept. 30.

Karda Constructions

Karda Constructions is a Nashik-based real estate company mainly involved in residential construction. The company has completed 17 projects so far covering a total area of 10.5 lakh square feet in Nashik.

Currently, the company has 11 ongoing and three planned projects with an estimated carpet area of more than 17 lakh square feet, said the company in its red herring prospectus. It has never paid any dividends and on listing the company would have a market capitalisation of close to Rs 220 crore.

The FY18 Report Card

Financial year 2017-18 has been the best year for initial public offerings with 37 companies raising as much as Rs 66,517 crore from the primary markets. With these four companies, the total amount raised would cross Rs 75,000 crore.