A turbulent year for initial public offerings in India has drawn seven entrepreneurs into the multibillion-dollar league, many of whom were non-starters in the country’s renewable energy sector.
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(Bloomberg) — A tough year for initial public offerings in India has drawn seven entrepreneurs into the billion-dollar league, many of them early movers in the country’s renewable energy sector.
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Chiranjeev Singh Saluja of Premier Energies is among those who have successfully ridden the wave.
“My father was in the business of providing hand pumps in rural areas,” said the 51-year-old in an interview. “He saw that electricity was not available in those areas, and he started Premier Solar in 1995,” said Saluja.
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Three decades ago, the company rebranded Premier Energies as the country’s second largest integrated solar module and solar cell manufacturer after the Adani Group. Investors interested in the government’s investment in solar power have bid up Premier’s shares nearly threefold since they went live in September, valuing them at around $7 billion.
Saluja is one of four entrepreneurs in the renewable energy space whose wealth has increased after their companies were listed on the stock market last year.
Others are Hitech C Doshi of Waaree Group, which also makes solar modules, Bhavish Aggarwal of electric company Ola Electric Mobility Ltd and Manoj K Upadhyaya of solar energy generator Acme Solar Holdings Ltd.
Prospects for solar players appear bright as India aims to add another 100 GW of capacity over the next four years, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan. But this can be a double-edged sword, says Saluja.
He sees an increase in new capacity in solar cells and module production over the next 18-24 months. “Of course there will be intensity in this sector, so only those will survive,” said Saluja.
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A similar trend could play out in the Indian market, which was set to go live in 2024, with a record 1.66 billion rupees ($19.82 billion) raised through IPOs compared to 650 billion rupees last year.
About 85 companies intend to list on the stock market next year, collectively targeting 1.53 billion rupees ($18 billion), according to data from Prime Database.
At the same time, issuers will have to contend with headwinds from a slowing economy, weak corporate profits, a volatile rupee, tight consumer spending and incoming US President Donald Trump’s tax policies.
Kunal Rambhia, fund manager and head of trading strategy at The Streets, a long-term fund based in Mumbai expects rising global tensions and the threat of tariffs to trigger a deep correction in the market this year.
“The IPO trend will continue in the first half of 2025, but may slow down in the second. “Start-ups and technology companies will find it difficult to list, especially in the second half because there may be a shortage of funds,” he said.
Others are more sanguine, considering that domestic inflows into stocks have been strong for some time now.
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“India’s IPO market is no longer dependent on foreign investors as domestic investors and domestic institutions have enough capital,” said Himanshu Kohli, founder of Client Associates, a multi-family office and private wealth advisor with over $6 billion in assets under management.
“Private firms and family offices have moved large sums of money into unlisted stocks and pre-IPO companies in the past year in anticipation of a successful exit in 2025,” Kohli said.
That should bolster IPO-bound companies, with the pipeline likely to be dominated by financial services companies, electronics manufacturers, power generation firms and software companies. Big names expected to list this year include Nexus Venture Partners-backed online grocer Zepto, Walmart Inc.-backed e-commerce giant Flipkart India Pvt, Prosus NV-owned payment company PayU and rival Peak XV Partners -backed Pine Labs.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd is expected to list its retail and telecom businesses as separate listed companies.
In the past three years, India’s IPO market has been dominated by a flood of small, medium and large companies, with 90% of them raising less than $100 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While 2025 could see big-name companies list their shares, everyday entrepreneurs across India don’t want to miss out on the IPO boom.
“Founders have realized that it is better to own 75% of a $100 billion company listed on an exchange than to own 100% of a $10 billion company,” said Vishnu Agarwal, CEO of Stock Knocks, a Kolkata-based investment research firm.
“There will be a tsunami of deals next year as founders are hungry for growth,” he said.
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