IPOs – HAVING ITS “EUREKA” MOMENT!

There are no road-shows. It’s all social distancing and Zoom-powered flurry of conferences. And yet, the IPOs are looking at a boom time like never before.

It is usually said that the Primary market is a reflection of the moods on the secondary market. If that is the case then surely, the secondary markets are in a bull phase! But then again, the falling economy and rising infections, unemployment, inflation, comatose demand – all that exists, yet the markets are so robust and thriving with life and vibrancy. Is it that all that pent-up demand is coming out into the primary market?

Another IPO, coming immediately behind Happiest Mind was that of Route Mobile. If Happiest Mind was subscribed 151 times, that of Route Mobile got subscribed almost 74.5 times. The Rs.600 crore IPO had offered 1.21 crore shares and it has received bids for over 89 crore shares! Retail investors came out in droves as their portion was subscribed almost 13 times, institutional by 91 times and HNIs by a jaw-dropping 196 times.

The phenomenal success of the IPO of Happiest Minds and then its super-duper listing today has suddenly turned back the focus to the IPOs. And this is not just happening in India. Yesterday, in the USA, on the NYSE, cloud company, Snowflake got listed at a 120% premium; such things never happened in a long time! So, what is it- why are people all over going ga-ga over IPOs?

If one looks closely, be it the two IPOs from India or Snowflake in USA, the common denominator is ‘tech.’ Not the brick-and-mortar companies but anything to do with tech, IT, cloud and e-commerce seems to be a super shot formula for success.

There are two simple reasons for this boom time in IPO, specifically, tech IPOs. Firstly, work-from-home is a concept which is here to stay and as majority of the IT sector works from home, stocks from this sector have found a kind of new reckoning. Investors know that this is a new opportunity and anything which enhances this experience is only bound to have a fancy and following.

Secondly, as we had stated earlier, a huge part of the young population is working from home and many of them have only recently found the time and the panache to invest in the markets. They are in this process of discovery and its their demand for IPOs, many of them investing for the first time, which is pushing up the demand. Young, work-from-home, well versed with tech and IT, and newbies – this is a deadly combination driving up the demand for IPOs even in the midst of a soaring pandemic.

All said and done, there seems to be a hunger for new names, this need to get their teeth into succulent new arrivals before the fund managers grab it. Investors feel that IPOs are a great way to ride the wave. Fund managers are sitting on a lot of liquidity and they too are looking at options beyond what the secondary market has to offer.

In the US, after Snowflake, all eyes are now on gaming tech company, Unity Software and after that several enterprise software companies and Boston-based telehealth provider, Amwell.

In India, the IPOs in the pipeline is not all tech though. There is an IPO getting ready from Kalyan Jewellers, Angel Broking, Computer Age Management Services, UTI AMC and National Commodity and Derivatives Exchnage.

So the idea is to look for companies which are taking full advantage of this current disruption, having re-invented themselves and appear to have business models which works even when there is a lockdown.

That’s how corona has changed our preferences and the IPO market is a direct reflection of our changing needs.