Fpos No Favourites With India Inc

The follow-on public offers seem to have lost their charm on Indian bourses with just six firms taking this route in 2007 and a single issue by ICICI Bank accounting for almost 92% of the total capital raised. The number of companies coming out with FPOs dropped to less than one-third of 19 in 2006. However, with ICICI Bank’s mega-issue, the total amount raised through FPOs more than doubled from the previous year to over Rs 10,000 crore.

ICICI Bank’s Rs 10,044-crore issue was the largest public offering of the year and eclipsed the largest ever IPO of Rs 9,187.5 crore by realty giant DLF, according to data compiled by prime database. The six FPOs together raised Rs 10,928 crore in 2007, with ICICI Bank issue accounting for 91.9% of it. This was the only FPO in the top ten public issues of the year, while IPOs accounted for the rest nine positions.

In 2006, Indian bourses had seen FPOs worth Rs 4,817 crore, down from Rs 12,764 crore, the data showed. Prior to that, FPOs had helped raise a record of Rs 17,389 crore on Indian bourses in 2004, representing a sharp surge from just Rs 480 crore in 2003.