Kotak expects IPOs to grow 32% to Rs 2.50L cr in 2026

Mumbai: Kotak Investment Banking (KIB) on Wednesday estimated 32 per cent growth in initial public offers at Rs 2.50 lakh crore this year on the back of jump in large issuances of over $1 billion. It said 2025 was a good year for new listings, with the Indian markets experiencing 13 per cent growth in issuances to Rs 1.89 lakh crore.

However, overall equity capital markets (ECM) activity, which includes follow-on offers, bulk deals and qualified institutional placements, declined by 18 per cent to Rs 5.1 lakh crore in the year. A third of the IPOs in the new year will be issuances of over $1 billion, and the new age companies and consumer sector companies are likely to continue to dominate.

The QIP issuances are likely to rise modestly to $10-12 billion in 2026 from $10 billion in 2025, KIB managing director V Jayasankar told reporters here. He said the valuations have come down in India and the multiples are closer to the ten-year average which will attract more investors.

Concerns have been raised about the nature of the IPOs amid frenetic activity in 2025, which saw nearly two-thirds of issuances being offer-for-sale by existing investors with minimal fresh issuances which get used for investments.

The entity feels that domestic institutional investors will continue to be important for the market even in the new year, and that the 60 per cent of the IPO anchorbooks in 2025 were subscribed by this lot of investors.