INDIA INC RAISES OVER `36K-CR VIA QIP IN H1FY18

New Delhi, Nov. 5: Indian firms mobilised over `36,000 crore through issuance of shares to institutional investors during AprilSeptember period of the current fiscal, a 13-fold rise from the year-ago period.

As per the latest data available with Sebi, capital garnered by the listed companies through the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) route stood at `36,653 crore in the first six months of FY18.

IDFC Bank MD Venkatraghvan S. said.

“It doesn’t make sense to raise money if you have no clear objects.

In comparison, firms had mopped-up `2,818 crore in April-September period of FY17.

The capital garnered by the listed companies in the first six months of 2017-18 is also four times the total amount raised in the entire 2016-17, which stood at `8,464 crore.

The funds have been mobilised for business expansion, refinancing of debt, working capital requirements and other general corporate purposes. The next best thing is to list so that when required, at the appropriate time, funds can be raised through qualified institutional placement (QIP), preferential allotment etc,” he added.

Echoing the view, Axis Capital MD and Co-Head Investment Banking Salil Pitale said: “Fresh capital is raised only if really required for growth, rather than for high risk purposes or to meet regulatory dilution requirements”.

The trend of predominance of OFS to continue — both from private equity investors and select divestments by sponsors including government, he added.

Interestingly, over `35,000 crore has been raised by insurance firms, ICICI Securities MD and CEO Shilpa Kumar said this could be attributed to insurance regulator Irdai’s move to relax capital raising norms for insurers.