IPO pipeline swells to ₹3.86 lakh crore as primary market deepens: AIBI
AIBI’s mid-term white paper states that around 130 companies have received SEBI approval for a combined issue size of approximately ₹2.43 lakh crore
India's mainboard Initial Public Offering (IPO) pipeline has grown to approximately ₹3.86 lakh crore as of September, nearly three and a half times the ₹1.10 lakh crore raised through 84 IPOs this year. This expansion indicates a shift towards a more stable and ongoing capital formation ecosystem, according to the Association of Investment Bankers of India (AIBI).
The white paper titled "India Capital Markets: Navigating Geopolitics, Capital & Growth" states that around 130 companies, with a combined issue size of about ₹2.43 lakh crore, have received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Another 75 companies, amounting to approximately ₹1.44 lakh crore, have submitted their Draft Red Herring Prospectuses (DRHPs) and await approval.
This pipeline is a result of the significant expansion of India's primary market over the past decade, with mainboard IPOs raising ₹8.36 lakh crore between 2016 and the first quarter of 2026. The annual fundraising has increased from ₹26,494 crore in 2016 to ₹1.76 lakh crore through 103 issues in 2025, with 84 IPOs already raising ₹1.10 lakh crore in the first quarter of 2026.
Mahavir Lunawat, Chairman of AIBI, states that the depth of the current pipeline and the participation from qualified institutional buyers, high-net-worth investors, and retail investors demonstrate that public markets are becoming a more extensive channel for capital formation. The intermediary ecosystem has also grown, with the number of registered merchant bankers increasing by about 33 percent from 188 in September 2016 to 250 in September 2026.
The average subscription levels for QIBs, HNI investors, and retail investors during the first quarter of 2026 were about 49 times, 86 times, and 26 times, respectively, although demand varied significantly across individual issues. AIBI believes the next phase will depend on factors such as the number of companies going public, issuer quality, institutional participation, disclosure standards, and efficient capital allocation.
Lunawat also highlights India's growing domestic capital base, mutual fund industry, and connections between public equity, private capital, and debt markets as factors that could support business expansion, new capacity development, and infrastructure investment.
Written by urgent.news from Hindu BusinessLine's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
