Axis Bank’s reasons may be fairly obvious given the turn of events at the microfinance lender after its founder and former managing director Padmaja Reddy questioned the management on the accuracy of collection efficiency data and employment of several consultants by private equity owners to help run the business.
For investors, the saga has come to a disappointing end with Axis Bank likely pulling the plug on the potential acquisition. Shares of Spandana Sphoorty over 4 per cent in trade reflecting investor anguish around the handling of the deal.
Paytm, burdened by anchor investors
Anchor investors were included in the initial public offering process to provide a reference point to investors about the fundamental solidity of the business hitting the primary market to raise money after hundreds of IPO scams of the 1990s.
Today, the very anchor investors are a source of concern in certain cases, at least, for Nykaa and
stocks. Nykaa stock has been on a downward trajectory since the lock-in period for its anchor investors opened last week, the stock sank more than 2 per cent today to its lowest price since listing last month.
In the case of Paytm, investors are nervous that its anchor investors may accentuate an already high downward pressure on the stock. Paytm’s stock is already close to 30 per cent lower than its issue price, and when the lock-in ends for anchor investors on Wednesday, it will see more selling from institutional investors over the coming week. Nervous investors decided to bail out today itself with the shares falling more than 4 per cent.
ITC listless on D-Day
The most anticipated day of the year for ITC investors turned out to be an anti-climax. The company’s first-ever analyst day meeting that was drummed over the past year, failed to elicit any exciting commentary at the time of publishing.
While the event was closed doors, the murmurs from it have been heard before and lacked any zing to excite investors, who had already driven up the stock more than 7 per cent ahead of the event. What ensued was some classic profit booking from speculators, who saw no reasons to hold their long positions.
What the analyst community made of ITC’s day-long presentations will only be known on Wednesday, but today was a day of dull disappointment.