Illustration by Ajay Mohanty
A fall in the equity market over the past few weeks has left investors that subscribed to the qualified institutional placement (QIP) issues in a quandary. The stocks of 30 of the 47 companies that have raised funds via this route so far in the 2017-18 financial year (FY18), are now trading below their issue price, data show.
These 47 companies have raised Rs 551 billion so far in FY18 – the highest ever in financial year – according to data from PRIME Database. Of this, eight PSBs raised a combined Rs 271 billion through QIPs, now valued 21 per cent lower at Rs 213 billion.
Fundraising via the QIP route had hit a record high in FY18 on the back of a sharp rally in equities that saw the frontline indices gain 21 per cent till the finance minister presented the Union Budget for 2018-19 on February 1, 2018.
Sentiment in the banking space started to turn sour with most public-sector banks hitting their 52-week lows after state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) uncovered fraudulent transactions to the tune of nearly $2 billion from one of its Mumbai branches in February 2018.
PNB, Bank of Maharashtra, Union Bank of India (UBI), Syndicate Bank and Dena Bank among public sector banks (PSBs) are now quoting up to 43 per cent lower than their QIP price.
“Investors have been taking money away from banking stocks, given the recent developments. That said, the overall markets have been volatile and the mid-and small-caps have been beaten down badly. Investors have now turned cautious. Even then, I don’t think all this will impact QIP issuances going forward. People have lost money in these two segments as the run-up in these segments in 2017 calendar year had been quite steep,” explains Munish Aggarwal, director (capital markets) at Equirus Capital.
Venus Remedies, Bodal Chemicals, Natco Pharma, Mercator, Nitin Spinners, ITD Cementation and Sanghi Industries are some of the other stocks that are trading 10 to 30 per cent lower than their QIP issue price. By comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex at 33,129 has corrected 9 per cent from its record high level of 36,444, touched on January 29, 2018, in intra-day deals. The S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Small-cap indices, too, have lost 13 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively, from their peak levels hit in early 2018 (CY18).
“Going ahead, QIPs of mid-cap companies will have a higher threshold in terms of what returns they are likely to deliver to investors, who, in turn, will look for valuation comfort before investing in such issues,” Aggarwal adds.
As regards PSU banks, analysts suggest investors stay away from this space for now. Analysts at Jefferies, for instance, prefer private banks, especially corporate-oriented ones or those with greater retail presence to their public sector counterparts.
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