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S. Vaidya Nathan

Reliance Capital: The equity offer at Rs 150 per share was marked by much hype about the company being next financial powerhouse on the global stage. Its promotional campaign made this explicit to the likes of J. P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Kleinwort Benson, Salomon Brothers and Morgan Stanley. The script went awry, as Reliance Capital got nowhere near.

VLS Finance: Offered at Rs 400, the tag of the highest-priced equity offer was its claim to fame. The list of its board of directors read like the who's who of the world of finance. That such a body decided to inflict equity at a price unwarranted by fundamentals remains, along with the infamous, but failed IPO of MS Shoes, the poster boy of the excesses of the mid-1990s.

Reliance Petroleum: The largest IPO was offered triple-option convertible debentures (TOCD). In the time-tested Reliance style of floating new companies as mere vehicles to raise funds, the non-convertible part of the TOCD was also converted into equity, and then Reliance Petroleum merged into Reliance Industries, with only a modest expansion in the latter's equity.

Rain Calcining: It is the rare instance of a project, for which funds were raised in the 1990s, that has culminated in implementation and performance. Rain Calcining represented a break from the culture in which the "business of making IPOs/offers for sale'' had itself become a business.

HDFC Bank: This new generation of private sector bank has gone on to secure a place in a large number of portfolios. Widely perceived as a long-term growth story with promise, its stock has always commanded a premium.

Hughes Software: This company epitomises the vast improvement in the quality of IPOs over the past four years, especially through the book-building route.

Maruti: This was the government's success story in the primary market space. The offer for sale was lapped at the upper end of the price band. Priced at Rs 125, the stock has more than trebled, rewarding investors handsomely and becoming a good advertisement for a similar approach to disinvestment in other PSUs.

Divi's Labs: Showcasing India's prospects in the generic and contract research outsourcing space, the IPO of Divi's Laboratories has proved to be a ten-bagger within a 10-month period. The tougher part of delivering on the promise lies ahead.

Bank of Baroda: This was the first of the PSU banks to tap the market. Offered at Rs 85, the stock delivered good returns for a sizeable period after listing. Then it slumped to less than Rs 40 before the bull market of 2003 catapulted it to over Rs 225.

Balaji Telefilms: It paved the way for stocks from the media content space to become an acceptable commodity. It has delivered not only some of the most successful entertainment serials, but also possesses an impressive earnings card.

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