The dry spell in the new listing arena last week threw up an opportunity to take a look at the IPOs of fiscal 1998 missing from the secondary market. There are more than four months to go before the curtains come down on the current fiscal, and, so far, 49 IPOs have hit the primary market to raise Rs 796.97 crore. As one IPO got cancelled, the count is 48 IPOs which have successfully raised Rs 789.97 crore. Here too, eight premium issues out of the 48 IPOs raised 84 per cent of the money (Rs 666.23 crore).

For 42 IPOs, the time for listing is up, if one provides 77 days, including a grace period of a week from the issue closure. Yet, only 21 IPOs are trading. Of the remaining 50 per cent, four scrips (three from Mumbai and one from Ahmedabad) have been unable to attract a quote despite being listed.

These are Baffin Engineering Projects, Ransi Cargo India, Metalco India and Arham Fiscals. Except for Metalco, which is listed on Ahmedabad, the rest are listed on Mumbai. If one counts the number of days from the issue closure, Baffin tops the list with 218 days, followed by Ransi with 205 days, Metalco with 149 days and Arham with 144 days.

Seventeen 17 IPOs from the current fiscal are missing without any clue to their listing or trading. These 17 missing ones had collected Rs 47 crore from the public. As the accompanying table shows, Hi-Klass Trading & Investment, which raised Rs 3.5 crore from the public is untraceable for the past 218 days since its issue closure, tops the missing persons' list. In terms of issue size, Charisma Overseas, which raised Rs 7.10 crore, heads the list. The Rs 75 lakh IPO of GR Industries & Finance is the smallest issue in the list.

Despite the fertile investment climate of Gujarat, there are nine IPOs in the missing list that have Ahmedabad as their regional exchange. Further, three more IPOs had indicated Ahmedabad as one of the exchanges to list their wares on for the secondary market. So, in all 12 out of the 17 missing ones are from Ahmedabad. Translated into percentage, it's almost 71 per cent of the total number of missing companies which tapped the public.

Despite the strict vetting of draft prospectus done by BSE, it has not been able to maintain a clean slate. Charisma Overseas, which has Mumbai as its regional exchange, has spoiled BSE's record (which otherwise would have been clean). Delhi and Calcutta have three missing companies each, while Jaipur has one. Pune with 5 and Rajkot with 4 are the smaller exchanges that catch the attention in the missing list.

At least 10 of the missing 17 are finance companies. All the four missing companies from Calcutta -- three having CSE as the regional exchange and one having CSE as the second exchange -- are finance scrips. Not suprising considering the record number of finance IPOs which hail from the City of Joy!

Finally, six successful IPOs (out of the total 48) have not yet crossed the 77 days of incubation. However, two have been traced to the OTCEI screen. Aditya Coatings, which was spotted 37 days after the issue closure, is currently priced at Rs 10.25 on OTCEI. Supreme Impex, commenced trading within 38 days of its issue closure, is currently priced at par.

The four IPOs pending (although not yet due) listing are Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation, Corporation Bank, Mallcolm (India) and Commitment Finance. Gujarat Mineral and Corporation Bank are eagerly awaited although only 26 and 36 days, respectively, have gone by since the issues closed.

(Arranged by INVESTAR -- The Aarthik News & Research Syndicate)

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.