Rights issues hit 5-year high in FY26 amid market volatility
India Inc. is increasingly turning to its own shareholders for capital.Companies sharply ramped up fundraising through rights issues in FY26, signalling a clear preference for funding from promoters and existing investors as volatile markets and cautious institutional investor flows made external capital harder to access.Qualified institutional placements continued to dominate fundraising by companies, although the gap with rights issues narrowed sharply from FY25.Companies raised ₹47,280 crore through rights issues in FY26, more than tripling from ₹13,797 crore in FY25 and marking the highest mobilization since FY21, according to Prime Database.
However, a ₹24,930 crore rights issue by Adani Enterprises alone accounted for over half of the funds raised during the year, underscoring the role of promoter-led capital infusion.At the same time, participation widened significantly. As many as 124 companies tapped the rights-issue route in FY26 compared with 18 in the previous year, pointing to a broader acceptance of this funding mechanism.A longer-term view highlights how cyclical this route can be.
Rights issues had surged in FY21, when companies raised over ₹64,000 crore amid pandemic-driven balance-sheet strengthening. Activity then slowed sharply, with fewer than a dozen issues raising under ₹6,000 crore in FY23.
The latest spike marks a decisive rebound rather than a steady trend.“FY26’s rights-issue spike is partly structural and partly cyclical. Sebi’s framework has made execution faster and more transparent, especially when promoters are willing to backstop the issue,” said Harshal Dasani, business head at INVasset PMS.The framework Dasani referred to was the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s streamlined
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