𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰-𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐈𝐏𝐎𝐬

These days, everyone I meet is talking about new age IPOs. Especially the IPOs of companies that are at very high valuations but are loss making.

As I was leaving for office, the globe-trotting ultra-HNI from the 36th floor, caught me in the lift. Pointing to an article on his phone, he grunted, “This business of free pricing of IPOs has become an easy route for PEs to exit from their investments. If they they want ‘out’, why should we want ‘in’?!”

Then, the kid from my building who is hoping to clear his CA exam on the first attempt, accosted me saying, “You see, most of these companies have no profitability. But still their market cap runs into thousands of crores of rupees. How is that possible?”

Then, Mrs Wagh jogged frantically up to me on the walking track, and while catching her breath, shared, “Somehow I never seem to get allotments when I apply in IPOs. So now I put my money in mutual funds and they get confirmed allotment when they are anchor investors. Smart, no?”

Then, while returning from the office, a buddy from my local watering hole exclaimed, “Something doesn’t add up! These companies attract a lot of buzz around their product or model and garner hoards of patrons but then, how loyal are these customers? Swiggy-Zomato-types may eventually cultivate a dedicated client base, but what about the rest?”

Then, Bahadur, the philosophising valet at the club lamented, “Of all the IPOs I’ve applied for, I got allotment in PayTM. Was so excited. But just see my bad luck…”

So the next morning when I reached office and Santosh, our cafeteria boy, breezed in with his cheerful demeanour and a steaming hot black coffee, I asked him, “𝑇𝑢 𝑛𝑒 𝑘𝑜𝑖 𝐼𝑃𝑂 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑘𝑖𝑦𝑎?”

“𝐻𝑎𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑎𝑎𝑏. 𝑀𝑎𝑖 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑏 𝐼𝑃𝑂 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑘𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑎 ℎ𝑢. 𝐾𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑙𝑎𝑔𝑎 ℎ𝑎𝑖, 𝑘𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑛𝑎ℎ𝑖 𝑙𝑎𝑔𝑎 ℎ𝑎𝑖,” he said simply. "𝐿𝑒𝑘𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑠𝑎 𝑎𝑐𝑐ℎ𝑎 𝑏𝑎𝑛 𝑔𝑎𝑦𝑎. 𝑈𝑠𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑒, 𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑘 𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑒 𝑚𝑒 1-𝐵𝐻𝐾 𝑘𝑎 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛-𝑝𝑎𝑦𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑑𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑦𝑎!”

𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑩𝒖𝒔𝒚𝒃𝒆𝒆, 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒖𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒆.

𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑟: 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑢𝑟𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑢𝑦/ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑑/𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒'𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠.