India’s IPO Deluge
The world’s largest stock exchange on Wall Street has now had the longest initial public offering (IPO) winter since 1980. The New York Stock Exchange saw a meagre 154 firms debut with their primary offers of shares in 2023, from a whopping 1,000 IPOs in 2021, primarily owing to the high-interest rates that have dashed hopes of high valuation of stocks. The Indian capital markets belied the trend, as our cover story revealed in July 2023, showing how IPOs were beginning to flock back to the markets after a barren spree in 2022.
Since then, 48 out of 58 mainboard IPOs debuted on Indian bourses, capitalising on the strong market sentiment and emboldened by the resilience of the Indian economy to recessionary trends. The large corporations were not the only enterprises that had faith in the market, small and medium enterprises (SME) began to test the waters of the capital markets too. The Indian SME sector, which has long depended on traditional financing instruments to fund their businesses, are now eager to raise capital from the markets as well. Our cover feature looks at the factors at play in this surge among SMEs to tap the Indian bourses through the IPO route. How are they creating value for their investors? We feature interviews with leaders of firms that have had a successful listing, who throw light on what the IPOs have meant for these ventures. This edition also has a special package on the second edition of the BW Supply Chain Competitiveness Summit & Awards, themed on Reinventing Traditional Supply Chains Amid Global Uncertainties.
At the event India’s top supply chain leaders deliberated on building efficient, sustainable and digitally progressive supply chains to bring about greater competitiveness in the existing goods transfer experience. This package dives deep into the best supply chain practices among organisations and individuals, who were honoured by the jury with the coveted award.
Rohit Chintapali chats with best-selling author Chris Miller who talks of why India should strategically target specific markets and competitors for chip manufacturing. He opines that taking China headon isn’t the best strategy. Of course, we also bring to you all our regular features and columns.
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