As many as 18 companies have received approval from capital market regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) to raise close to ₹20,000 crore this year.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Pranav Haldea, MD, Prime Database said, “This time, elections were actually a known event for the primary market. If you look at historical data of the four previous election cycles of 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019, you had a total of 28 IPOs raising about ₹7,500 crore, cumulatively across those four election cycles.”
Haldea said about 52 IPOs raised ₹50,000 crore in the six months leading up to the elections this year.
The months of April and May in election years remain typically an extremely dry period. However, this year, there were seven IPOs being launched, which raised close to ₹15,000 crore.
“So this year, this election season has been a bit of an anomaly. Of course, there’s been a bit of volatility in the recent past. And as we’ve seen, primary markets generally do not like any kind of volatility. But I think the kind of run-up that you’ve seen recently bodes extremely well for the pipeline,” he said.
At the same time, as many as 37 companies look to raise ₹50,000 crore, which are filed with SEBI and are awaiting approval.
Some of the larger ones include Afcons Infrastructure, Bajaj Housing Finance, Waaree Energies.
“I think the pipeline looks extremely strong as long as secondary market continues to be buoyant the way it is and at least at this point in time, there seems to be no reason why it shouldn’t, especially with the kind of flows that you are seeing from domestic investors, institutional and retail. I think you should have a stellar year for IPOs in 2024-2025,” he said.
As far as the new age is concerned, there is Swiggy, which could potentially be listing for this year.
“Last year didn’t see the BFSI segment in a major way. In previous years, we’ve seen 60-70% of the rural funds being raised from the BFSI sector, which actually is not a huge negative as far as I’m concerned. You saw issues from a whole wide variety of sectors — manufacturing sector also came in a big way. And I think that bodes extremely well for the overall capital market ecosystem when you’re seeing a large number of companies across sectors, across sizes having the confidence to tap the primary market,” Haldea added.
