The IPO Boulevard

For the financial market, 2021 began with a big bang with the government announcing to sell stakes in the country’s largest insurance company Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). That was the beginning of a flood that’s waiting to sweep through the capital market this year with at least 40 companies planning to mop up Rs 80,000 crore by floating public issues. If the announcement of listing LIC was the trigger for the tide, then the biggest wave so far has been the Zomato public issue. The food delivery app raised more than Rs 9,000 crore from its initial public offering (IPO). It was the largest after the Coal India IPO, which had raised Rs 15,000 crore. But records are fairly meant to be broken. The wave swirling up is the next big daddy – the Paytm IPO – that’s aiming for a record Rs 16,000-crore tsunami in the capital market. The Zomato and Paytm public...