MC Insider: Chemical IPOs, the 2-buck fight, the botched block deal, pledged shares, the banker who retired hurt and more

Nothing like a drugmaker these days to shake off the market heebies-jeebies. The spectacular success of Rossary Biotech’s debut in July has snapped the IPO market out of its deep slumber. No surprise the biggest beneficiary has been the chemicals segment, which is crackling with listing action due to an unprecedented spurt in demand and dizzy valuations. Baroda-based Chemcon Chemicals is lining up for an IPO launch this month. Expect more chemical companies to jump on the IPO bandwagon. IPO advisors are having a hard time keeping up with the flurry of enquiries. This is one experiment that will keep the pot boiling for some time.

Wait, one more on pharma. The dealing rooms were recently abuzz with a block deal in a midcap pharma player. The hustle and bustle was triggered by chatter that a PE fund was due to sell stake in the company to a clutch of influential investors. But things got muddy thereon. The broker with the mandate is rumoured to have shared info about the deal with some of its HNI clients. This set off a big spike in the stock fouling up the block deal. Last we heard influential investors were tearing their hair out in anger and for good reason. It will be interesting to see if they are still keen on getting a slice of the pie or will just lie low for some time.

When the chemicals segment sparkles, can gaming be far behind? Gaming was celebrated as the next big thing during a tete-a-tete between a global tech titan and an India Inc heavyweight earlier this year. And when fantasy gaming platform Dream 11 trumped other favourites to bag the lucrative title sponsorship rights for IPL 2020, it was well, game on! One such player in the bustling segment, backed by marquee investors, including a D-Street legend, has flirted with a market debut in the past. But we now hear it’s decided to take the plunge only after an acquisition in the edutainment space. Hope it’s worth the wait.

This Canadian fund is eyeing a $700 million Reit. No big deal except that it borrowed a page out of its peer’s playbook and ended up hiring ten investment banks to run the process. It wasn’t long ago that the Mindspace Reit had 14 merchant bankers zooming on calls from across the globe. Seems like some of the names from the last issue have managed to hustle in and are working overtime to file the DRHP in October and complete the sale process by December. The firm was initially taking it slow during the early months of the pandemic. But the exuberance in capital markets has pushed them to press the accelerator. Earlier this year, it hired Morgan Stanley, BoFA and Citibank. Now it has added an army of desi banks in the last few days. After all, ye dil always mangey more.

While brokers and high net-worth investors were tearing their hair in frustration last week over the new pledging rules by Sebi, a bull cartel was busy accumulating shares of Central Depository Services. With every pledged, repledged or unpledged request now having to be confirmed by the depositories, market chatter is that the depositories will be charging a fee for such requests beyond a certain limit. Already, CDSL is the flavour of the season because of the steady rise in the number of new investors entering the market since March. The buzz about a likely fee on pledge transactions looks to have added fuel to fire. The stock fell sharply from its record high of Rs 513 to close at Rs 461 on Thursday. But it ended slightly higher on Friday when the market itself was under pressure.

A next-generation promoter of a well-known group picked up a brawl with a deep pocketed investor — all for 2 bucks! Instead of meeting his agreement to sell shares at a certain price, this infrastructure company went ahead with a beauty parade for his shares after haggling with the sponsor and managed to get a negligible premium. That sullied the relations forever. Incidentally, it is part of a group that has never been too popular with the investors. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, clearly.

This financial services group that has long been toiling to raise funds befriended a Chinese fund. It’s the same fund that was rejected a higher offer by a healthcare company, not too long ago, as the sellers clearly saw the writing on the wall. With tensions re-emerging at the border, this financial firm may have loaded itself with more liability in the bargain. Will someone address the dragon in the room?

All eyes are on this top banking job. And it’s turning out to be no-holds-barred fight. While the top boss man has assembled dollops of generous referrals on his CV, he has not managed to impress the ones who counsel and carry weight in the final decision-making. The balance may have shifted in favour of the one who was in the running for this seat the last time around. And guess what — insiders tell us that the power struggle is far from over. But given that these are difficult years for banking, it is possible that this Game of Thrones will turn out to be Crown of Thorns.

This erstwhile high-profile banker who was shamed when his mentor and boss ran into multiple troubles due to a financial mess is now looking to sanitise his image by aligning with a powerful tech poster boy. Market grapevine has it that the duo may be planning to combine the banking experience with the tech thrust to come up with a FinTech company. Given the shareholder onslaught this professional received during the bank crisis, he is purely banking on short public memory!

The chief executive of a Delhi-based bank has been feeling rather homesick this past year. The spread of the virus and the lockdown have only made things worse. As if these weren’t enough to make him jaded at work, we have learnt that that the CEO and the chairman don't always see eye to eye. In what is a first for a bank, our CEO chose the voluntary retirement route to escape to God's Own Country. While the move caught the organisation by surprise, the request has to be made several times because a replacement was found. Only then was he finally allowed to say goodbye.

The RBI regulates Indian banking. Every banker who violates the rulebook fears the wrath of Mint road. The RBI time and again reminds bankers of propriety. So a recent appointment by the central bank on a key panel has not only raised eyebrows, it is also being viewed with some consternation by the banking fraternity. The problem is the person appointment has a needle of suspicion hanging over him. Bank employee unions are unhappy with the appointment. So are RBI employee unions. One rule for banks, another for RBI, they ask. Well, this isn’t the last we have heard of the matter.

It's a boat. It's a plane. No, it's sea plane! A little birdie tells us that after months of test flying, a leading airline has scheduled to roll out its commercial sea plane services next month-end. The 9-10 seater planes, the birdie tells us, will take off from the calm waters of one of the "big rivers" that flows through the country's western region. This may well be a teaser for a more scaled-up service connecting remote areas that could make quite a spectacle along one of the world's biggest rivers that nourishes the country's eastern region. The original date for launch was October 31, 2020. Will COVID-19 upset the big splash where VVIPs are expected to be on board the first flight? Watch this space.