Big bull Ketan Parekh back in action

AHMEDABAD: Big bull Ketan Parekh appears to be back in action, going by the regularity with which he is paying off his dues running into crores of rupees. The accelerated pace of his repayments to the beleaguered Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank (MMCB), which he sucked dry before getting busted, is coinciding with bull run on bourses.

According to sources, Parekh has stepped up his repayment of outstanding dues to crisis-ridden MMCB in last two and half years, that the market has witnessed, a huge. Though KP, as he is known, was barred from participating in the market, there have been reports that he is active on the bourses through brokers and associates.

Out of the total repayment of Rs 207 crore, KP has paid Rs 223.24 crore since April 2004 till date when the market has been on an upswing. In stark contrast, he could pay only Rs 33.76 crore between April 2001 and March 31, 2004. The bull run on the markets began from April 2003, when the sensex hovered at 2900 points and it gained momentum from January 2004 onwards.

KP was granted bail by the Supreme Court on the condition that he would have to make a payment of Rs 395 crore to the MMCB by August 2004 but he failed to keep the deadline as he could cough up merely Rs 36 crore to the bank. However, the deadline for the repayment was extended and he has not had problems since then.

“Ever since the market has witnessed a bull run, we have started receiving bigger instalments from Ketan Parekh,” Jairambhai Patel, chairman, MMCB, told TOI.

The market watch-dogs have cautioned the bourses about KP’s possible entry into the markets through the back-door following reports that he has become active in certain shares. KP was banned from any kind of the markets operations after he manipulated with stock prices of many companies utilising funds from MMCB and other sources

Note the high numbers of realty plays in the fray.

Primary market set to witness huge inflows

Namrata Gada

Capital funds
Around 58 issues are yet to receive approval from SEBI.
`The IPO of DLF alone will raise Rs 13,000 crore.'
`Around Rs 4,200 crore will be raised through IPOs of 22 cos which have received SEBI approval.'

Mumbai , Aug. 23

The primary market is set to witness a revival in the coming months with initial public offerings (IPOs) of industry heavy weights expected to hit the markets. Markets have recovered from the mayhem in May and most companies have now considered floating their IPOs. This means that a huge amount of money will enter the capital markets.

Around 58 issues are yet to receive approval from SEBI. "These companies will raise as much as Rs 18,000 crore," said Mr Prithvi Haldea, Managing Director, Prime Database.

The IPO of DLF alone will raise Rs 13,000 crore.

"The fundamentally good companies awaiting approval include DLF, Lanco Infratech, Sobha Developers and Orbit Corporation," he added.

"Around Rs 4,200 crore will be raised through IPOs of 22 companies which have received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Out of these, the big ones include Power Finance Corporation, which would raise Rs 1,500 crore, Parsvanath Developers to raise Rs 1,000 crore and Multi Commodities Exchange (MCX) with an issue size of Rs 300 crore," said Mr Haldea.

The fate of the IPOs will be a function of the state of the security market, pricing of the issue and fundamentals of the company.

"If the issue is rightly priced according to investors, it will work and if it is priced to suit the merchant bankers, it will fail," said Mr Ketan Karani, Vice-President, Research, Kotak Pvt Client Group, Kotak Securities.

BSE, Cairn Energy and two arms of Tata Motors are expected to go the public way.

According to analysts, these issues will be huge in terms of the amount they propose to raise. However, the recent issues of GMR Infrastructure and Tech Mahindra, though oversubscribed, saw the retail quotient being highly under-subscribed.

Retail investors still have to come back strongly, post the crash, say analysts. In recent times, the IPO of Reliance Petroleum has been the most successful.

BANGALORE: After turning around the fortunes of thousands of landowners, the Midas effect of India’s booming realty has rubbed off on another set of rising stars — real estate professionals.

Looking eye-to-eye with IT stalwarts, real estate companies have happily doled out generous increments to employees this year.

Bangalore-based Prestige Group, for instance, has handed out a 40% average salary hike across the board to employees. A couple of top guys are supposed to have raked in as much as a 60% hike this year. Says M Sooryakanth, vice-president(HR), Prestige Group, “The real estate industry is going through a phase of explosive growth, the kind the IT industry witnessed a couple of years ago.

The realty juggernaut is also attracting a lot of attention from big players like Reliance and Godrej and competition for the available pool of talent is set to intensify. Currently, attrition is high and quality manpower scarce therefore companies have to work harder to retain talent.”

Explains Ravi Ramu, executive director & CFO, Puravankara Projects, “Real estate is arguably the fastest growing industry in the country. And this is just the beginning of the boom. The demand for real estate professionals will only go higher. Puravankara plans to hire more than 1,000 engineers in the next 10-12 months. In the race for the best, builders and realty majors will be forced to be more transparent and more organised. The industry stands to benefit if it incorporates the learnings of the IT industry in the way it operates, communicates and remunerates.”

Agrees Juggy Marwah, V-P (sales), RMZ, “Real estate companies and builders in the country are now moving to adopt international best practices in the realty industry. RMZ, on its part, is adopting the variable and fixed salary component structure to reward achievers and retain talent.”

This year the average annual rise in compensation at RMZ ranges between 30-40%, he adds. Not to be left behind, Sobha Developers’ staff have been awarded a 20-40% rise in salary.