India’s primary market in 2025 reflected a clear change in behaviour among promoters and private equity investors. After two years of strong listing gains and enthusiastic retail participation, the year marked a phase where sellers dominated the IPO narrative, using public markets aggressively to monetise holdings rather than fund expansion.

Total IPO fundraising in 2025 stood at approximately ₹1.76 lakh crore, underlining that investor appetite for new listings remained intact despite global volatility and uneven secondary market sentiment. However, the composition of this fundraising tells a more nuanced story. Offer-for-sale transactions accounted for ₹1.11 lakh crore, or nearly two-thirds of the total, while fresh equity issuance contributed a relatively modest ₹64,406 crore.

This skew towards OFS suggests that the IPO market increasingly served as an exit platform for existing shareholders rather than a capital-raising avenue for companies. The trend contrasts with earlier cycles where fresh issues formed a larger share of issuance, supporting balance sheet expansion and growth investments.

Promoters emerged as the most aggressive sellers in 2025, accounting for 71 percent of total OFS value. In absolute terms, promoters sold shares worth about ₹79,000 crore through IPOs. Private equity and venture capital investors followed, contributing 19 percent of OFS activity with stake sales of ₹20,644 crore. The remaining portion came from banks, domestic corporates, and individual shareholders.

Among promoter-led exits, LG Electronics Inc stood out as the single largest seller, divesting ₹11,600 crore through the IPO of its Indian arm. Prudential Corporate Holdings, promoter of ICICI Prudential AMC, ranked second with sales of ₹10,600 crore. HDFC Bank, acting as promoter of HDB Financial Services, sold close to ₹10,000 crore.

Other sizeable promoter exits included CA Magnum Holdings’ ₹8,752 crore sale in Hexaware Technologies and Tata Sons’ ₹7,500 crore divestment in Tata Capital.

On the private equity side, exits were more fragmented but still meaningful. Peak XV Partners led PE selling, offloading ₹2,687 crore across Pine Labs, Meesho, Wakefit Innovations and Billionbrains Garage Ventures. International Finance Corporation followed with ₹1,310 crore of sales, exiting positions in Tata Sons and Nephrocare Health Services, while YC Holdings sold ₹1,054 crore worth of shares in Billionbrains Garage Ventures.

Several offshore funds and financial investors also booked partial exits, including SVF LI Lightbulb, Synergy Metals Investments Holding, AP Asia Opportunistic Holdings, Schroders Capital Private Equity Asia Mauritius, Ribbit Capital, Claymore Investments (Mauritius) and GW-E Ribbit Opportunity. The breadth of sellers points to a coordinated reduction of exposure rather than isolated exits.

For the Indian market, the dominance of OFS-heavy IPOs alters the risk-reward equation for investors. When proceeds primarily flow to exiting shareholders rather than into companies, post-listing growth visibility becomes more dependent on execution and operating leverage rather than balance sheet expansion.

This shift also partly explains the deterioration in listing performance. Average IPO gains, which climbed from 11 percent in 2022 to nearly 30 percent in both 2023 and 2024, slipped sharply to around 9 percent in 2025. Of the 91 companies listed during the year, only a small fraction delivered returns exceeding 50 percent, while many traded below issue price within three to six months of listing.