Bessemer Venture Partners has closed $350 million in capital for its second dedicated India fund to back founders in the region, who build enduring companies.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) proposal to re-introduce "hard underwriting" is seen as step to boost India's moribund initial public offering (IPO) markets. The regulator has proposed that in case an IPO fails to garner full subscription, the investment banker or a third-party can buy the unsubscribed shares. This practice was common during fixed-price issues prior to 1999. However, under the new book building regime, underwriting is allowed only to the extent of shortfall due to technical rejection of bids - this is referred to as "soft underwriting" and is rarely invoked.
Indian society may be more advanced than we think it is, notes Ajit Balakrishnan.
From the 30-share Sensex blue-chip pack, Titan, Adani Ports, UltraTech Cement, Tata Consultancy Services, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever and JSW Steel were the biggest laggards.
In the hottest sector of AI, where most global VC funding is going currently, the country's record has not been anything to write home about.
Investors attribute the revival to the country's strong public markets, which are boosting confidence in initial public offering (IPO)-bound startups offering viable exit opportunities.
SoftBank-backed hospitality major OYO is planning to reduce the number of shares it aims to sell through public listing because of reduced capital requirements and technology headwinds. This comes at a time when valuations of start-ups, including that of OYO, have taken a hit. "OYO earlier filed papers for its IPO (initial public offering) based on its funding requirements at the time.
Venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) funds had, in 2024, taken bets on traditional businesses rather than tech-first domains like consumer tech, software as a service (SaaS) and software. According to data from Bain & Co, Pitchbook, Venture Intelligence, VCC Edge and AVCJ, prominent VC funds like PeakXV saw their share in this traditional space go up sharply from 14 per cent in 2023 to 23 per cent in 2024.
'Binary fission will happen -- startups will lead to more startups.'
Tightening Initial Public Offering (IPO) norms, capital markets regulator Sebi on Friday cleared the proposal mandating the issuers to disclose the offer price based on past transactions and fund raising activities. In addition, the board of Sebi approved a proposal introducing an alternative mechanism by permitting "pre-filing" of offer documents for companies contemplating IPOs. Under this, an issuer should make "pre-filing" of offer documents with Sebi and stock exchanges without making it available to the public for an initial scrutiny period only.
Oravel Stays Ltd, which operates travel tech firm and brand OYO, on Wednesday said it will refile its draft public listing application by the middle of next month. Earlier this month capital markets regulator Sebi had asked the company to refile the draft initial public offering (IPO) papers with certain updates. "We are working on updating all key sections simultaneously.
The total number of demat accounts in the country stood at 171.1 million as of August 31.
The political economy of the IPO market involves regulators empathising with intermediaries, and designing a bridge that systematically takes wealth away from founders, VC and PE funds, and business houses, explains Ajay Shah.
Gensol Engineering, the beleaguered firm that came under market regulator Sebi's lens for fund diversions and governance lapses, said that its independent director Arun Menon has resigned with immediate effect.
Ola Electric is conducting an restructuring exercise which is expected to affect over 500 employees across various roles within the organisation, according to sources. This would be over 12 per cent of staff at the firm which has about 4,000 people. "This is a restructuring exercise ongoing for the last few months and is expected to conclude by next month," said a person familiar with the development.
Shares of Le Travenues, which operates online travel booking platform ixigo, soared 78 per cent on their market debut (June 18) and surged 80.4 per cent in the three days over their issue price. Ixigo has joined competitors EaseMyTrip and Yatra on the bourses. Analysts believe the blockbuster response to ixigo may lead to greater scrutiny of the financial performance of other online travel aggregators (OTAs) like Easy Trip Planners, and Yatra Online.
Oravel Stays - which operates hospitality tech firm OYO - on Friday pre-filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus with stock market regulator Sebi, sources said. Sources close to the company told PTI, OYO may launch its initial public offering (IPO) around Diwali this year. Unlike the traditional route where companies have to launch the IPO within 12 months from the Sebi approval, or final observation; in the pre-filing route, an IPO can be floated within 18 months from the date of Sebi's final comments.
Star Health and Allied Insurance's Rs 7,250-crore initial public offering (IPO), the third largest this year and eighth largest ever, just about managed to make it despite a poor response from investors, garnering just 79 per cent subscription, forcing the investment bankers to prune offer for sale (OFS) component. This is the second large offering after digital payments major Paytm this year to receive a lukewarm response from investors, a sign that despite the IPO frenzy investors are discerning when it comes to pricing. As Star Health didn't meet the profitability criteria, its IPO required a mandatory 75 per cent subscription from qualified institutional buyers (QIB).
India's Venture Capital (VC) ecosystem exhibited robust growth in 2024, with funding surging 43 per cent year-on-year to $13.7 billion, according to a report. This recovery was fuelled by a 45 per cent rise in deal activity, with 1,270 transactions recorded, reinforcing India's position as the second largest market for venture capital and growth funding in the Asia-Pacific region, the report by Bain & Company and IVCA said.
Zomato's mega initial public offering (IPO) ended with a bumper 38 times oversubscription on Friday as institutional investors poured money to get a pie of the hottest online food delivery platform. Zomato got bids for 2,751.25 crore shares against 71.92 crore shares on offer, stock exchange data showed. The IPO is India's biggest since March 2020. Institutional investors, who shied away in the first two days of the IPO, bid several times over the number of shares reserved for them.
TCS's mcap crossed $100 billion in 2018, 13.5 years after the IPO. It took only four more years to double its mcap to $200 billion.
The move might delay the Gurugram-based hospitality unicorn's initial public offering (IPO). OYO filed preliminary documents with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in September 2021 for a Rs 8,430 crore IPO.
Of the 59 IPOs for which the data is available, 36 IPOs received mega responses of more than 10x (of which, six IPOs more than 100x), while eight IPOs were oversubscribed more than 3x.
With the Russia-Ukraine war roiling financial markets globally, the government may defer the mega IPO of LIC and wait for an opportune time to get the maximum value of its holding in the state-owned insurance behemoth, sources said. "It's a full blown war now so we will have to assess the situation for going ahead with the LIC IPO," a government source said. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, too, had indicated review of the IPO in view of the evolving geopolitical situation.
Zaggle Prepaid, Cyient DLM, Healthvista India, Rashi Peripherals and Vishwaraj Sugar Industries have obtained the green signal to launch their initial public offerings (IPOs). The approvals come at a time when capital raising by way of IPOs has slowed to a crawl, with only four issues hitting the market so far this calendar year. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued final observation letters on their draft red herring prospectuses (DRHPs), which is akin to getting approval to hit the markets.
LIC's public offer, the country's biggest-ever IPO, was fully subscribed on the second day of bidding on Thursday. Against 16,20,78,067 shares on offer, 16,68,60,765 bids were received -- translating into a subscription of 1.03 times, as per data on stock exchanges as of 7 pm. However, the Qualified Institutional Buyer (QIB) and Non-Institutional Investor (NII) portions have received a tepid response so far.
'It will be a cat and mouse game between investors and the government.' 'The issue will be launched only if there is sufficient demand from investors and the government is in agreement with the bankers on the valuations.'
IPO market hopes to come out of slump in festive season, reports Sundar Sethuraman.
After a prolonged winter, the Indian edtech sector seems to be witnessing some signs of a thaw. The sector has received $608.8 million of funding across 68 deals in 2024 so far - 153 per cent more than the $240.9 million across 106 deals during the same period last year - according to data from market intelligence platform Tracxn.
The initial public offering of the country's largest insurer LIC will open on May 4 and close on May 9, sources said. The IPO, through which the government will sell 3.5 per cent stake in state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), will fetch Rs 21,000 crore to the exchequer. The IPO values LIC at Rs 6 lakh crore.
Three companies -- FirstMeridian Business Services Ltd, IRM Energy Ltd and Lohia Corp -- have received capital markets regulator Sebi's go-ahead to raise funds through initial public offerings (IPOs). These firms, which filed their preliminary IPO papers with the markets regulator between September 2022 and January 2023, obtained the observation letters during February 21-24, an update with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed on Tuesday. In Sebi parlance, observation implies go-ahead to the company to float the initial share-sale.
Shares of Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the Indian arm of South Korean automaker Hyundai, on Tuesday made a muted market debut and further fell by nearly 6 per cent against the issue price of Rs 1,960. The stock listed at Rs 1,931, reflecting a decline of 1.47 per cent from the issue price on the BSE. Later, the stock made some recovery and hit a high of Rs 1,968.80, up 0.44 per cent.
The government will launch the mega public offer of LIC by March and file draft papers with market regulator Sebi by the end of this month, an official said. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had last week reviewed the progress of the initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in a meeting with top officials of the ministry. The official said the September 2021 quarter financials of LIC are getting finalised as well as fund bifurcation is in progress.
Ola Electric's initial public offering (IPO), of Rs 5,500 crore, is essentially aimed at ensuring the company maintain its top position in the electric two-wheeler segment, with incumbent players TVS and Bajaj Auto giving a fight to the number one player in market share. Most experts and competitors say the amount being raised is in line with the investment required to expand the electric-vehicle (EV) business. There are two discernible trends in the competitive electric two-wheeler market.
Electric two-wheeler (e2W) maker Ather Energy has submitted preliminary papers to the Securities and Exchange Board of India to raise funds through an initial public offering (IPO). According to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), the IPO will comprise a fresh issue of equity shares valued at Rs 3,100 crore, alongside an offer for sale of 22 million equity shares by its promoters and investor shareholders.
'I advise people to stay away from secondary IPOs. There is a big conflict of interest between the exiting and incoming investors'
Hyundai Motor India Ltd has become the country's fifth most valuable auto firm by market valuation in its debut trade on Tuesday. Shares of Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the Indian arm of South Korean automaker Hyundai, listed at Rs 1,931, reflecting a decline of 1.47 per cent against the issue price of Rs 1,960 on the BSE earlier in the day. The stock slumped 7.80 per cent to Rs 1,807.05 during the day and finally ended at Rs 1,820.40 apiece, down 7.12 per cent.
On average, stocks that debuted last year are down 37 per cent from their peak levels.
India is likely to see over 100 mature, large-scale profitable or on the path to profitability startups in the next five years, of which 80 have the potential to go for public listing, market research and consultancy firm Redseer said on Tuesday. Redseer Strategy Consultants, in a report on IPOs, said 20 of the mature startups have gone public so far. "India may see over 100 matured, large-scale profitable/path-to-profitability start-ups in the next five years.
'The country is a good test bed for enterprise adoption, but to scale rapidly, companies will need to look outside the country for customers.'
