IPOs to find the going tough

J Kumar Infra manages to scrape through.

The turbulence in the secondary market is having a ripple effect on the initial public offers by companies.

The IPO by J Kumar Infra, which closed on Wednesday, managed to scrape through, with the issue getting bids for 2.7 times. This is in sharp contrast to the recent IPOs, which were getting subscribed many times over.

The qualified institutional bidders' portion was subscribed 2.8 times and the HNI and retail portion was subscribed 1.37 times and 1.6 times, respectively.

The IPO by Cords Cable Industries, which closes tomorrow, has been subscribed 0.84 times so far, according to the National Stock Exchange data.

Bankers said the forthcoming IPOs will find it tough to sail through if the volatile conditions persist in the market. Getting the retail portion subscribed will be the biggest challenge, they said.

"QIBs will help the issues to sail through. However, retail investor may shy away as they have burnt their fingers in the turbulent markets. It is likely that companies may fix their price at the lower end of the price band in anticipation of a subdued sentiment," said an investment banker.

Several IPOs are lined in the coming days and these include Emaar MGF's Rs 7,000 crore issue and Wockhardt Hospitals (Rs 775 crore). the other IPOs lined up include IRB Infrastructure Developers, Onmobile Global and KNR Construction among others.

"Any good quality IPO shouldn't have a problem. However, it would certainly impact the number of times subscription is expected. Those companies which haven't finalised the issue time and price will take a fresh view on till the market stabilises," said Sanjay Sharma, managing director, Equity Capital Markets, Deutsche Equities India.

In 2006 "" when the market crashed last time "" Deccan Aviation was forced to extend its shares sales by three days and pare the lower limit of the price band by Rs 4.

Industry players said many IPOs were then put on hold for three months due to the uncertainty among retail investors.

The weak market conditions in August last year had forced realty firm Purvankara Projects revise its price band to Rs 400-450 from Rs 500-525.