Public market fundraising set to hit record ₹6.5 trillion in FY27: Motilal Oswal

India’s public market fundraising window has opened up sharply as initial public offerings (IPOs), qualified institutional placements (QIPs), and block deals pick up simultaneously—a rare combination, according to Amit Ramchandani, head of investment banking at Motilal Oswal. He added that overall fundraising is projected to rise to a record ₹6-6.5 trillion in FY27.

“Unlike earlier cycles, market participation today is genuinely broad-based across market capitalizations and deal sizes,” dealmaker Ramchandani told Mint in an interview on Wednesday. He joined the Motilal Oswal Group as CEO of investment banking after previously leading the same division at JM Financial.

This pickup follows a months-long lull, with several IPOs—including Milky Mist, Shiprocket, and Gaja Capital—hitting the market, alongside new block deals in Billionbrains Garage Ventures, Physicswallah, Rubicon Research, Welspun Corp, and Viyash Scientific.

Block deals are also increasingly being executed close to prevailing market prices rather than at steep discounts, Ramchandani said. “⁠Institutional investors are increasingly focused on securing meaningful allocations rather than fine-tuning entry prices, fueling immense momentum in the block window,” he said.

Strong second half expected

Ramchandani expects this momentum to accelerate through the second half of FY27, with at least 20 IPOs in September alone. He anticipates FY27 will comfortably surpass FY26 in both the volume and value of IPOs.

“Following the 112 IPOs last fiscal, we anticipate a 20-25% uptick this year,” he said. In value terms, IPO fundraising could rise to ₹2.75-3 trillion in FY27, from around ₹1.7 trillion in FY26, he added. He noted that despite a slow start in the first half of the year, strong second-half volume should easily push the full-year figures past these levels. QIP fundraising is also expected to roughly double to ₹1.25-1.5 trillion in FY27 from ₹60,000-62,000 crore last year.

“Both put together we should be anywhere between ₹4.5 trillion to ₹5 trillion, which should be the highest that the industry has ever seen,” Ramchandani said. He added that block and bulk deal volumes are also set to expand to ₹1.5 trillion in FY27, taking total public market fundraising to ₹6-6.5 trillion.

Over the past few months, Motilal Oswal was among the banks involved in SBI Funds Management $1 billion IPO, ICICI Prudential asset management $1.2 billion IPO, and Raajmarg InVIT $650 million IPO, among others.

In an interview on Wednesday, BofA Securities’ head of India corporate and investment banking Mandar Donde also told Mint that India’s IPO market is poised for a busier second half, with large deals in the pipeline and more multinational corporations looking to list their local subsidiaries.

Lower valuations

Beyond total issuance volume, public offering strategies and pricing dynamics are also shifting. Companies are increasingly accepting lower initial IPO valuations and floating smaller offerings. The goal is to establish a public market benchmark first, enabling issuers to sell larger, secondary stakes through block deals later once trading normalizes. “Once the stock gets listed then they are able to find their benchmark and subsequent to that you see a lot of blocks coming,” Ramchandani said.

New-age companies like Lenskart and Urban Company adopted this approach by launching IPOs at more reasonable valuations, which allowed the public market to smoothly absorb their shares.

More recently, Mint reported on 26 August that Vineet Mittal’s Avaada Electro Ltd scaled down its proposed IPO to ₹7,600 crore from an earlier potential target of ₹10,000 crore, according to its updated draft red herring prospectus. The adjustment came after preliminary discussions with prospective investors regarding valuation and concentration risks, said two people familiar with the matter.

Ramchandani said, “IPO pricing has turned more pragmatic, leading to smaller OFS sizes. Where public market valuation expectations diverge, issuers are tapping private credit and structured debt to meet immediate funding needs, choosing to revisit their IPO timelines down the road.”

Slowdown looming

While the immediate pipeline of public offerings remains strong, Ramchandani expects the pace of new IPOs to moderate once the current queue clears. Out of more than 240 draft filings, over 145 have secured regulatory approval, while about 70 are still awaiting the green light, he said.

Following the roughly 57 to 58 public issues already completed in FY27, Ramchandani projects that another 70 to 80 could enter the market. Once this queue is exhausted, “you will probably see some slowdown”, he said.

Because the current pipeline of relatively large, mature companies will exhaust their IPO plans over the next year, any subsequent drop in listings will primarily impact smaller businesses, he added.

While private-equity-backed enterprises and multinational corporations will keep listing, companies that are only now starting to plan an IPO will take considerably longer to launch, Ramchandani noted.