Big-ticket IPOs line up for 2026; Tata Sons missing

Mumbai: India’s IPO pipeline for 2026 is shaping up to be one of the busiest in recent memory, with marquee names such as Reliance Jio, the National Stock Exchange, SBI Mutual Fund, Hero Fincorp and several other large financial and consumer-facing businesses expected to tap the public markets. Together, these listings could deepen India’s capital markets, attract global investors and provide fresh momentum to economic growth.

Yet amid the optimism, one conspicuous name remains absent from the IPO calendar — Tata Sons. Unlike the others, its absence is not a matter of timing or market conditions, but regulatory uncertainty. Tata Sons remains the only Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) in the Reserve Bank of India’s “upper layer” that has not moved towards a listing, even after the September 30, 2025 deadline for mandatory listing has passed.

Under the RBI’s scale-based regulatory framework, systemically important “upper layer” NBFCs are required to meet enhanced governance norms, including a compulsory public listing within three years of classification. Tata Sons was identified as an upper-layer NBFC in 2022, placing it on the same regulatory footing as other large finance companies that have since either complied with the requirement or announced plans to go public.

The continued uncertainty around Tata Sons’ listing has kept investors and market watchers guessing, even as India’s broader IPO boom gathers momentum.