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India is on track for a record year in initial public offerings after the value of primary listings reached their highest year-to-date level on the back of interest rate cuts and strong domestic demand for equities.
The amount raised in primary public flotations this year has hit $6.7bn, compared with $5.4bn over the same period last year, making India the world’s biggest IPO market outside the US, according to Dealogic data. Several highly anticipated listings, including Tata Capital’s expected $2bn flotation, could propel India past last year’s $21bn raised.
“We are going to see a significant acceleration in the primary market compared to the first half,” said Sunil Khaitan, managing director and head of India financing at Goldman Sachs, who expects as much as $20bn to be raised in the second half of the year.
The country’s blue-chip Nifty 50 index has recovered from a weak start to the year, when India was dealing with signs of a slowing economy, turbulence from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a brief conflict with Pakistan. The index is now up about 7 per cent this year and nearing a record high.
However, with New Delhi yet to cut a trade deal with Washington and Trump threatening the country with further tariffs, India would “need a few more [IPO] deals to go well to determine if the bull market is back, especially at a time when the macro background remains uncertain”, said Perris Lee, head of Asia-Pacific equity capital markets at business intelligence service Mergermarket.
Market optimism has been underpinned by the Reserve Bank of India’s reduction of interest rates by a full percentage point this year as inflation concerns ease and official data points to a recovery in the country’s economy. Retail investors, which have benefited from personal income tax cuts, have been pouring household savings into mutual funds.
“Further central bank interest rate cuts should fuel domestic investor appetite for equities in general, including IPOs,” said Hasnain Malik, head of equity strategy at emerging markets research group Tellimer. “Foreign institutional investors are still ‘underweight’ in India relative to their benchmark indices, which means they have capacity for these IPOs.”
Foreign institutions have withdrawn $8bn from Indian equities this year on concerns about high valuations, but the figure has been dwarfed by domestic fund inflows of more than $42bn, according to Goldman Sachs calculations.
Companies looking to list are rushing to take advantage of the market rebound. Joint venture ICICI Prudential Asset Management, which announced its intention to go public this week, is expected to be the third billion-dollar-plus float in India this year.
Investors have been encouraged by the post-IPO performance of recently listed companies.
HDB Financial Services has gained 5 per cent since its $1.5bn debut at the start of this month, and IT services provider Hexaware has advanced nearly 15 per cent since raising $1bn in February.
“These two deals certainly add to the confidence of a long list of IPO candidates in the country,” said Lee of Mergermarket. “We should expect more medium- to jumbo-size IPOs to test market appetite soon.”
Those include the listings of the Indian arm of South Korea’s LG, stock brokerage Groww and ecommerce company Meesho.
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