India bankers predict IPO surge as election uncertainty lifts
market for share sales including initial public offerings, and as elections come to a close, a bumper crop of deals is poised to set a record as investors seek to tap the rapid growth in the region’s third-largest economy.
About $3.9 billion has been raised in India via IPOs so far this year, more than double the same period in 2023, and a tally that’s higher than the combined amount raised in South Korea and Hong Kong, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The jump in activity for blocks and placements is even more outstanding. Taken together, sales of new and existing shares in the first half of 2024 have raised around $18.64 billion, within a hair of topping the record set in the last six months of 2017, the data show.
The year’s largest IPOs are likely yet to come, such as South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co.’s first-time share sale of its India unit, which could raise about $2.5 billion, Bloomberg News has reported. That would make it one of the biggest-ever listings in India — and bankers say the rush is just getting started.
“This kind of breadth of companies coming to the market is phenomenal,” V Jayasankar, a managing director and member of the board at Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. “Companies from all sectors are filing for IPOs and this is for the first time in my more than three decade career that I am seeing this level of robustness.”
For Jayasankar, the equity capital markets business will build up post elections, and that momentum will continue through 2025 as well. Fundraising from IPOs could
