The IPO market of 2021 was a record-breaker of sorts. Never has so much money been raised via IPOs in a given year. If I remember correctly, Indian companies raised more than Rs 1.15 lakh crore (or almost $16 billion) last year. And some of the names last year were eagerly awaited by the investor communities.
Let’s have a look at the biggest IPOs of 2021 before we move on to the IPOs planned for the current year.
Biggest IPOs of 2021
The year 2021 saw a lot of new-age online businesses (and home-grown Unicorns) making their debut in Indian markets. Here are the major online players and how their IPOs did last year:
- Zomato IPO – Whether you like ordering food online or not, you are bound to know the name Zomato. It has a high brand recall and cashing the same, the company did an eagerly-awaited IPO in 2021. The size of the IPO was about Rs 9375 crore. The IPO saw a lot of demand and was oversubscribed 38.2 times. The IPO saw a solid listing and closed the day almost 82% above its IPO price of Rs 76 per share. But since then, and with new-age tech stocks taking a beating, the price of Zomato’s share has come down to its IPO levels.
- Paytm (One 97 Communications) IPO – Everyone knows Paytm. And the company decided to do India’s biggest IPO till then in 2021 (taking the title away from Reliance Power after more than a decade). It raised a whopping Rs 18,300 crore. The IPO did see a subscription of 1.89 times but it was nowhere close to what the demand expectations were earlier. But things have gone pretty bad from then on. On the day of listing, the stock crashed and closed down 27% on its issue price of Rs 2150. And it went down even further and as of now, is down close to 75%. Though the company has been trying to revive investors’ confidence in its business model and future potential, the stock price is not showing much enthusiasm. The Paytm listing has been a rude shock for the new-age tech companies who are planning their IPOs soon.
- Nykaa (FSN E-Commerce Ventures) IPO – This was another IPO from the new-age online business that created quite a buzz among investors. The Rs 5352 crore issue saw a whopping 82 times oversubscription. The stock did well on debut rising 79% on Day 1. But like many other IPOs, investors’ enthusiasm didn’t stick for long. From an IPO price of Rs 1125 per share, it ended the first day up 79%. Then it rose up till Rs 2500 before falling down to Rs 1219 (though it has recovered a bit at the time of writing this post to almost Rs 1700).
- Policybazaar (PB Fintech) IPO – PB Fintech is the parent company that operates popular online aggregator portals Policybazaar (for insurance) and Paisabazaar (for credit comparison). The company raised Rs 5710 crore through IPO at Rs 980 per share. The IPO saw a good response and the issue got subscribed 16.59 times. Policybazaar had a decent listing at +17%. In a few days’ time, the shares moved up to a high of almost Rs 1500 before getting into a corrective phase down to a lot of Rs 618, which is down almost 30% on the issue price.
- Star Health IPO – This was also a large Rs 7249 Cr IPO. But it got a poor demand and the issue size had to be cut to get it passed through. The shares were listed at a discount to their IPO price of Rs 900 and haven’t done well since then too.
So these were a few of the major tech IPOs in 2021. As you can see, of the 60+ IPOs that came last year, a few of the very big names in the tech space tested primary market waters. Though the return experience of investors, at times, can vastly differ from their return expectations (as explained in why IPOs come in rising markets), the IPO market of 2021 was indeed like no other in the previous decade.
Also, in addition to large-sized IPOs, there were a few other interesting listings of smaller size that saw massive oversubscriptions and huge listing gains. A few of them are as follows:
- Sigachi Industries IPO – A small issue but had blockbuster gains of 249.6% at listing.
- Paras Defense IPO – Another small issue but with huge listing gains of 168%. Due to its small size and high demand, this got oversubscribed a massive 304x times
- Latent View Analytics – Once again, a small IPO of issue size of Rs 600 crore. But this got the highest oversubscription ever in India at 326.5 times. This also had a stellar listing up almost 160% on the listing.
After the biggest year for IPOs in India (2021), the stage is all set for raising funds via primary markets this year (2022).
Major IPOs of 2022 in India
Some of the most eagerly awaited companies are planning to raise money in primary markets. Few of the Indian IPOs to Watch in 2022 are –
- LIC IPO – This has been already announced. Though the size of this government-backed IPO has been cut drastically by the government from the earlier estimates of more than Rs 50-60,000 crore, it is still slated to be the biggest IPO ever in India at its current size of Rs 21,000 crore. Of course, we cannot predict what will happen in or after such a huge IPO, but I think this will be the most discussed IPO for a long time. For more details, check the latest LIC IP details.
- Oyo Hospitality IPO – Oyo, synonymous with budget hotels in India is also looking for an Rs 8000+ Cr IPO soon.
- Ola IPO – Another well-known company in the startup space is ride-hailing aggregator, Ola. Though the company is now venturing into the EV space, it might go for an Indian IPO with a fund raising plan of about $1-2 billion in 2022.
- Byju IPO – India’s most valuable startup in the unlisted space Byju is also exploring doing an IPO in India. The company’s recently concluded pre-IPO round valued it at $22 Billion. By some estimates, the company may plan for a post-IPO valuation of $40 billion in India. Earlier, the plan was for a US-based listing via SPAC, but now, an Indian listing is being explored.
Then there are a few others like Delhivery, Pharmeasy, Snapdeal, SBI AMC, Mobikwik, Boat, Bajaj Energy, Ixigo, Go Airlines, Emcure Pharma, etc. are also expected to bring in their IPOs in 2022.
These are some of the upcoming IPOs in 2022 to watch out for.
Though stock market upheavals might delay a few of these IPOs, 2022 is still set to be an interesting year for the Indian IPO market. And unless the stock markets completely fall apart, I think many of these IPOs will happen this year though the size of the issue and price demanded may change a bit eventually based on market conditions and other backdrop factors.