IPO Journey in India Through The Decades
India is experiencing a surge in initial public offerings (IPOs). In 2021, the Indian market saw year-on-year growth of 156 percent in IPO activity, as per an Ernst & Young report. This trend has carried into 2022 with the recent LIC IPO seeing record applications. The IPO boom is happening at the same time as a slew of aggressive, youthful first-time investors flood the market. But can we expect further growth or will the end result be unpleasant? Looking to the past may offer some hints. The curious case of the 90s There were 6,300 public issues between 1990-91 and 2021-22, which raised over Rs 8.4 lakh crore. However, more than two-thirds of the offerings were made in the first six years (1990-91 to 1995-96) alone. Out of these, the funds generated only accounted for only 4.8 percent of the total funds raised through such offers during the previous three decades. On the other hand, just 5.6 percent of the total issues given in the 30 years were raised in the last six years (be