Record Fundraising, Mixed Returns: The Paradox Of The 2025 IPO Market
Out of more than 90 companies that listed this year, 42 are currently trading below their listing price.
The IPO market in India is on a record-breaking run, with 2025 shaping up to become the best year ever, overtaking the blistering pace set in 2024. However, does the fizz survive after listing? Let's find out.
More than 90 companies have already raised over Rs 1,54,367 crore this year, with the majority ending the listing day in green. Of the 89 companies that have listed so far this year, 58 closed their first day in the green, while 31 companies closed in the red on day one.
However, of the 58 that saw a positive opening, only 20 delivered more than 20% gains on debut. What is also unusual is that these highs came without a roaring bull market behind them.
After The Debut: A Market Divided
The real test, of course, lies in performance after listing, and here the split is stark.
Forty-two companies are currently trading below their listing price, while 45 are in positive territory. Investors who chase momentum at the time of listing may therefore find themselves exposed to post-IPO corrections that often erode short-term gains.
Veteran investor Shankar Sharma, founder of GQuant Investech described a two-part process that he claims defines the market. First, an IPO is completed at an unjustifiably high valuation. Second, the stock inevitably collapses post-listing.
"The stock will fall... 50%, 60%, 80% as we have seen," Sharma told NDTV Profit, citing the performance of new-age tech companies like CarTrade, Nykaa, Zomato, and Paytm as prime examples.
According to Sharma, the "nub of the problem" lies in the flawed analysis that follows the crash. He argued that investors, anchored to the initial high IPO price, view the 80% drop as a bargain rather than assessing the company's fundamental worth at its new, lower valuation.
Big Winners And Big Losers
Some names have managed to stand out impressively. Ather Energy leads the gainers with a post-listing jump of 115%, followed by Quality Power with 108% gains and Stallion India with a rise of 76%.
Interestingly, except for Stallion India, most top performers were actually weak debutants, proving that long-term strength can emerge even after a soft listing.
On the losing side, Laxmi Dental has plunged 44% since listing, closely followed by Highway Infrastructure which is down 43%. Unlike the top gainers, most on this list had positive listings but failed to sustain momentum. Gem Aromatics and Dev Accelerator are the exceptions with poor debuts that led to further declines.
Only two companies have achieved the rare feat of delivering more than 30% gains on listing day and maintaining that momentum thereafter: Aditya Infotech and Jain Resource. These two names represent the ideal IPO outcome with solid debuts and backed by sustained post-listing performance.
A Record Year, But Powered by Exits
Despite the high interest and numbers, beneath the excitement lies a familiar trend: a large part of the fundraising boom is being driven not by fresh capital, but by investors cashing out.
The data shows that 2025 has matched 2024 in terms of the number of IPOs at 91, but fresh issue collections have dipped to Rs 56,796 crore from Rs 64,499 crore last year. Meanwhile, the offer-for-sale (OFS) component, where existing investors sell their shares during an IPO, has hit an all-time high at Rs 95,865 crore.
This trend is hardly new. For years, OFS has dominated Indian IPO fundraising. In 2017, OFS accounted for 83% of total IPO proceeds; in 2025, the figure stands at 63%. Only in a handful of years, most notably 2021 and 2023, did fresh issues form a relatively larger share of the pie.
