IPO-bound companies to watch out for in 2023

Initial public offerings (IPOs) in the calendar year 2022 declined sharply in India. Had it not been for the face-saver from a high-profile but poor public listing of insurance behemoth LIC, the decline in actual money raised would have been even more pronounced.

Around 40 Indian companies raised Rs 59,412 crore through main board IPOs last year, compared with 63 companies that went public raising Rs 1,18,723 crore, an all-time high, in 2021, according to primedatabase.com, which tracks the primary capital market.

As much as Rs 20,557 crore, or a little over a third of the total amount raised in 2022, was by LIC alone.

Meanwhile, the pipeline for IPOs continues to remain strong. Around 54 companies are proposing to raise a huge Rs 84,000 crore and are presently holding SEBI approval. Out of these companies, eight are new-age technology companies, which are looking to raise roughly Rs 29,000 crore. Another 33 companies looking to raise about Rs 57,000 crore are awaiting SEBI approval.

Experts believe that the momentum seen in the last two months of 2022 is likely to continue, at least for the smaller sized IPOs. However, it may be a while before we see larger sized deals, especially in light of lack of sustained interest from foreign portfolio investors.

Some companies that have just received an approval to go ahead with an IPO include PayMate, Avalon Technologies and Udayshivakumar Infra. Some others that had received the approval a while back and could be hot issues in 2023 include one by Flipkart co-founder’s Navi Technologies, Biba, First Meridian, Deltatech Gaming, Gold Plus Glass, Concorn Biotech and Sai Silks Kalamandir.

Some others that could join the pipeline include: Tata Play (formerly Tata Sky), BVG, Joyalukkas, IRM Energy, R&B Infra, Wapcos, Airox, IndiaFirst Life Insurance, Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services, Survival Technologies, Honasa Consumer (Mamaearth, Rishabh Instruments, Healthvista India (Portea).

Looking at firms with IPO approvals granted since last April, we have names like luxury watch retailer Ethos, Asianet, Capillary Technologies, FabIndia, Imagine Marketing (boAT), Kids Clinic, TVS Supply Chain, Aadhar Housing, FedBank Financial, Macleods, Bharat FIH, Senco Gold, Vikram Solar and Concord Enviro.

If we look at the list of firms with SEBI approval whose IPO approvals are expiring over the next few weeks, we have names like Jesons, Capital Small Finance Bank, CMR Green Technologies, Wellness Forever, API Holdings, JK Files, Hexagon Nutrition, Sresta Natural and Maini Precision. These are firms whose IPO approval are still valid but will start expiring from February onwards.

Notably, given the state of affairs, many of the new-age technology companies may not go ahead with the IPO.