Madhurendra Sinha
IF 2024 was the year of IPOs, 2025 will be no different! Taking a cue from the last year’s successes, many big companies are planning to jump on the bandwagon.
Last year saw more than 90 mainline Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), raising a combined Rs 1,59,676 crore. The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) segment witnessed 240 IPOs collectively raising Rs Rs 8,753 crore.
According to an analyst, 2024 was a record-breaking year for IPOs, especially the SME IPOs. Some of these were oversubscribed by a mind-boggling 2,000 times. Although there were many issues which disappointed their investors, by and large, most listed higher than their original price. This year, many companies, including Reliance Industries, LG Electronics, and NSDL, have lined up big IPOs. Market watchers expect that Reliance will bring an issue of over Rs 100 billion, which will be the highest in the Indian IPO market.
Historic milestone
A report by a financial services group predicts Rs 2-trillion+ record-breaking IPO fundraising in 2025. It says that India achieved a historic milestone by securing the top position globally in terms of IPO volume for the first time, surpassing both the US and Europe. India has the advantage of reduced capital costs, a wide consumer market and a robust regulatory regime. This encourages global players to consider Indian markets for their equity offerings.
According to reports, 34 companies have already secured requisite SEBI approval for IPOs this year, targeting a combined Rs 41,462 crore. Besides, 55 firms await regulatory clearance, intending to raise about Rs 98,672 crore. These include the National Securities Depository (NSDL), Ecom Express, Shivalik Engineering Industries, LG Electronics India, and Avanse Financial Services.
The other highly anticipated offerings include Dr Agarwal’s Health Care, Hexaware Technologies, and HDB Financial Services. E-commerce giant Amazon’s key rival Flipkart is also planning to enter the primary market. So is the quick home delivery company, Zepto. Reports say that Tata Passenger Electric Mobility will also enter the primary market, as also the Greaves Electric Mobility.
Market apprehension
Alongside the reports of these large number of upcoming IPOs, there are certain apprehensions as well. The IPOs last year rode on the back of a bull market, but of late, the stock markets has not performed too well. In the last few months, the overall market capitalisation decreased by almost Rs 42,000 crore. Additionally, perceptiondriven stocks in the mid-cap space have fallen by 20 to 30 per cent. These are not good signs, therefore, and investors may not be very keen to go all out for new IPOs. A wait-andwatch policy may prevail for the next few months.
