India’s equity capital market volumes to see heightened activity next year, Citi Group says

“We have done close to $15 billion in IPOs since the beginning of 2025 and have a few more on the way. I think the volumes have increased substantially this year and the sizes are larger,” said Arvind Vashistha, head of capital markets at Citi India. Mint. He added that Indian companies could raise over $20 billion through initial public offerings (IPOs) by the end of this year.

“We are seeing IPOs of varying sizes and scales from companies across different sectors, including finance and fintech, infrastructure and healthcare, coming to the market and this is keeping public market activity steady. There is still a lot to do in November and December and we expect this to remain a busy period,” added Rahul Saraf, head of investment banking at Citi India. He also said the firm is seeing more examples of private equity-backed companies exploring IPOs.

Some of the IPOs authorized by Citi India include listings by Tata Capital, LG Electronics India and Hexaware Technologies. Other IPOs expected for this year include Lenskart, Meesho, Groww and Pinelabs.

“There is a very high-quality pipeline of companies looking to go public, and as we come into the second half of this year, we see that the number of entities looking to leverage for IPOs is at a reasonable scale and profitable,” Vashistha said. he said. He also predicts an increase in Qualified Institutional Placements (QIPs), a way for publicly traded companies to raise capital, and higher average ticket sizes for firms to meet growth targets.

The investment bank facilitated State Bank of India’s QIP, one of the largest transactions this year. He was also involved in British American Tobacco’s sale of shares in ITC.

domestic capital

The rise in activity is also driven by a mix of rising domestic capital fueled by higher retail investor participation, as well as geopolitical issues that have led many multinationals to list their subsidiaries in India to cut debt, de-risk and obtain temporary liquidity.

Saraf added that different strategies are implemented in mergers and acquisitions, and that foreign strategic money comes to India while global multinational companies are evaluating sales options in some organizations. “The deals we are seeing today do not have one central theme. It has been entirely case-by-case, with different sentiments across companies and sectors,” he said, adding that the firm is also seeing more examples of “collaboration, partnership and alliance” with Indian companies.

Some of the prominent M&A transactions Citi India has been involved in include Akzo Nobel’s sale to JSW Paints, SMBC’s acquisition of stake in Yes Bank, IHC’s acquisition of majority stake in Sammaan Capital, Blackstone’s sale of minority stake in VFS Global to Temasek, UC Regents and others, and Capgemini’s acquisition of WNS. Includes purchase.

Indian companies are also more actively exploring acquisitions in different geographies to diversify and de-risk themselves in the wake of the ongoing tariff war.

“Most of our Indian clients have an unleveraged balance sheet and there is a lot of liquidity in the system. This, coupled with a stable government and some international geographies with lower multiples and valuations, has made acquiring companies an attractive option,” Saraf said.

“It is also encouraging that there is so much capital available in India. Private equity firms are hungry and willing to buy a good asset or pay a premium,” he said, adding that deals are also becoming more complex as domestic strategies become more acquisitive in nature. “We have also seen 2-3 cases recently where domestic strategies have taken a longer-term view and won against private equity.”