Real estate companies, which have planned big-ticket initial public offerings (IPOs) last year, are staying away from the market in spite of the prevailing favourable secondary market conditions. Though many small IPOs were enthusiastically lapped up by investors, real estate firms are sitting on IPO plans worth over Rs12,000-crore [$2.6 billion].

Sahara Prime City (Rs3,850-crore or $854.7 million), Emaar MGF (Rs3,450-crore or $765.9 million), Lodha (Rs2,800-crore or $621 million) and Ambience (Rs 1,125-crore or $250 million) are some of the major real estate players which announced their IPO plans last year, but are yet to launch.

In my view, a surge in investor skepticism after the global recession has trapped many companies with assets that have lost value in the downturn. Those same companies are prolonging their IPO move for at least a year or so for when the market rebounds, hoping to their assets improve in value to avoid illiquid stocks the companies would face if they went public today.