IPO-FY25: Q4 selloff moderates IPO returns to 6.83%

25 Mar 2025 , 12:04 PM

FY25 IPO STORY ENDS ON A DULL NOTE

IPO performance looked a lot more exciting at the end of December 2024. However, the sharp sell-off in the quarter to March 2025 and a virtual drying up of IPOs after mid-February meant a tepid performance for FY25. IPO Collections are still impressive at ₹1.83 Trillion in FY25, with mega IPOs sailing through. Here is a summary of the IPO story in FY25.

• A total of 82 IPOs in FY25 raised a total sum of ₹1,82,536 Crore on the IPO mainboard. We have only considered IPOs that got listed in FY25. We have included the follow-on public offer (FPO) of Vodafone and the issue of Bharat INVIT too. Out of the 82 IPOs in the year; there were 15 IPOs in the Jun-24 quarter, 26 IPOs in the Sep-24 quarter, 30 IPOs in Dec-24 quarter and just 11 IPOs in the Mar-25 quarter. The Dec-24 quarter alone collected 52.3% of full-year IPO flows.
• Out of the 82 IPOs that listed in FY25, a total of 48 IPOs have given positive returns while 34 IPOs gave negative returns. The top 5 performers for the year, so far, were KRN Heat Exchanger (+323.3%), followed by Bharti Hexacom (+143.8%), Premier Energies (+104.11%), Quadrant Future Tek (+86.1%), and Orient Technologies (+76.7%). These are point-to-point returns, without annualization.
• Out of the 48 IPOs giving positive returns in FY25, a total of 3 IPOs gave more than 100% returns, 17 IPOs gave more than 50% returns, while a total of 26 IPOs gave more than 25% returns. Had an investor invested in all the 82 IPOs in FY25 and got an allotment of one lot each, their return on investment would have been a tepid 6.83%.
• In FY25, there were a total of 4 IPOs raising ₹10,000 Crore and above, including the ₹27,870 Crore Hyundai Motor India IPO and the ₹18,000 Crore Vodafone Idea FPO. In addition; Swiggy and NTPC Green Energy raised ₹11,327 Crore and ₹10,000 Crore respectively. A total of 13 IPOs raised over ₹4,000 Crore, 22 IPOs raised over ₹2,000 Crore, and 34 IPOs raised over ₹1,000 Crore in FY25.
• In terms of subscription, the 82 IPOs put together got an aggregate oversubscription of 25.85 times, of which a total of 5 IPOs were subscribed over 200 times, 24 IPOs got subscribed more than 100 times and 45 IPOs got subscribed over 50 times.

Here is a look at the 10 best IPOs under various criteria.

BEST IPOS BY TOTAL RETURNS IN FY25

Here are the 10 best IPOs of FY25 based on total returns post listing.

Issuer Company	Listing Date	Issue Size (₹ in Crore)	Subscription Ratio (X)	Issue Price (₹)	Market Price (₹) #	Absolute Returns (%)
KRN Heat Exchanger	03-Oct-24	341.95	213.41	220	931.30	323.32%
Bharti Hexacom Ltd	12-Apr-24	4,275.00	29.88	570	1,389.40	143.75%
Premier Energies Limited	03-Sep-24	2,830.40	75.00	450	918.50	104.11%
Quadrant Future Tek	14-Jan-25	290.00	195.96	290	539.55	86.05%
Orient Technologies Ltd	28-Aug-24	214.76	154.84	206	363.95	76.67%
Bajaj Housing Finance Ltd	05-Sep-24	6,560.00	67.43	70	121.74	73.91%
Interarch Building Products Ltd	26-Aug-24	600.29	93.79	900	1,516.00	68.44%
Awfis Space Solutions Ltd	30-May-24	598.93	108.17	383	642.55	67.77%
Gala Precision Engineering Ltd	09-Sep-24	167.93	201.41	529	882.90	66.90%
Mamata Machinery Ltd	27-Dec-24	179.39	194.95	243	395.10	62.59%

Data Source: NSE (# – Price on 24-Mar-25)

Here are some quick findings.

• A passive approach to investing in all 82 IPOs in FY25 would have yielded return on investment (ROI) of just 6.83%. That is a sharp fall since December 2024.
• How did arithmetic averages of returns look like in FY25? The top 10 companies by returns generated average point-to-point returns of 107.4%, while the top 20 companies gave average returns of 80.13%. However, had you been unlucky and selected the 20 worst IPOs, average returns would have been -35.83%.
• How did the top and bottom return companies fare in subscription ratio? The top 10 companies had average subscription of 133.5 times while the bottom 10 by returns had average subscription of 45.3 times.

Returns are influenced by the small IPO size effect, hence to give a pragmatic picture, we also consider the ranking on rupee wealth created.

BEST IPOS BY RUPEE WEALTH CREATED IN FY25

Here are some quick findings.

• Against the overall issue size of ₹1,82,536 Crore, total wealth created was ₹12,464 Crore. Top 5 companies by wealth creation created ₹19,242 and the top 10 companies created ₹23,945 Crore. In terms of rupee wealth created; Bharti Hexacom, Bajaj Housing, Premier Energies, Waaree Energies, and Vishal Mega Mart dominated.
• The attractiveness of an IPO is not just in the returns or wealth created but also the chances of getting an allotment. If you look at the top 5 by wealth created, the average subscription ratio was 56.1 times while for the top 10 stocks it was 53.6 times. In short, chances for retail participation in wealth creation were fairly high.

Having seen returns in relative and absolute terms, we move to subscription comparison.

BEST IPOS BY SUBSCRIPTION RATIO IN FY25

Here are the 10 best IPOs of FY25 by subscription ratio.

Issuer Company	Listing Date	Issue Size (₹ in Crore)	Subscription Ratio (X)	Issue Price (₹)	Market Price (₹) #	Absolute Returns (%)
Indo Farm Equipment	07-Jan-25	260.15	227.67	215	165.39	-23.07%
Manba Finance Ltd	30-Sep-24	150.84	224.05	120	139.00	15.83%
Denta Water & Infra	29-Jan-25	220.50	221.54	294	308	4.76%
KRN Heat Exchanger	03-Oct-24	341.95	213.41	220	931.30	323.32%
Gala Precision Engineering	09-Sep-24	167.93	201.41	529	882.90	66.90%
Quadrant Future Tek	14-Jan-25	290.00	195.96	290	539.55	86.05%
Mamata Machinery Ltd	27-Dec-24	179.39	194.95	243	395.10	62.59%
Stallion India Fluoro	23-Jan-25	199.45	188.32	90	74.05	-17.72%
Standard Glass Lining	13-Jan-25	410.05	185.48	140	154	10.00%
Unimech Aerospace	31-Dec-24	500.00	184.34	785	1,022.00	30.19%

Data Source: NSE (# – Price on 24-Mar-25)

Here are some of our key inferences.

• Out of the total IPO size of ₹1,82,536 Crore, total subscription interest received was ₹47,18,416 Crore. That translates into overall subscription ratio of 25.85 times for all 82 IPOs in FY25. That is substantial IPO appetite.
• The ranking by subscription is biased in favour of smaller IPOs. For instance, if you look at the average IPO size of the top 5 ranked by subscription ratio, it was just ₹228 Crore. The top 10 by subscription ratio had an average issue size of ₹272 Crore while the top 20 had an average IPO issue size of ₹316 Crore. Interestingly, the average size of all 82 IPOs in FY25 was ₹2,226 Crore.
• Did companies with highest subscription ratio also score high on returns? The top 10 companies by subscription ratio had average returns of 55.9%, while for the top 20 companies by subscription, average returns were 34.0%.

To address the size challenge, we look at rupee subscription interest as a proxy.

BEST IPOS BY RUPEE SUBSCRIPTION APPETITE IN FY25

Subscription ratio is also biased in favour of smaller companies, so we have looked at rupee subscription appetite to give weightage to size.

• A total of 12 out of 82 companies got subscription interest of over ₹1 Trillion in FY25. These top 10 by subscription appetite accounted for 48.3% of overall subscription appetite of all IPOs in FY25.
• The top 10 by subscription interest generated average returns of 47.8%, which is a good sign. If you look at the top 20 companies, average returns are 42.4%. One can infer that a large number of investors have made money in IPO markets in FY25.

FY25 was an interesting year with record collections; although the Mar-25 quarter did reduce the sheen substantially!