With stringent guidelines on IPO financing put in place by the Reserve Financial institution of India (RBI) and the Securities and Change Board of India (Sebi), these lenders are maintaining market borrowings at a naked minimal.
Subscriptions at a Excessive
In November to this point, non-banking monetary corporations (NBFCs) have raised Rs 3,500 crore via business papers (CP), bringing the overall borrowing via the route for the yr to Rs 20,100 crore, in response to Icra.
In 2022, NBFCs raised Rs 45,740 crore via the instrument. In 2021, they raised a report Rs 7.1 lakh crore, and in 2020, Rs 2.38 lakh crore via the short-term business paper, it mentioned. The borrowings in 2020 and 2021 have been made to satiate the demand amongst wealthy buyers, who borrowed and positioned massive bids in IPOs for itemizing positive aspects. This resulted in lots of IPOs on this interval seeing astronomically excessive subscriptions.
Involved over the IPO frenzy fuelled by short-term borrowings, RBI imposed a ceiling of Rs 1 crore on the quantity that NBFCs can lend per borrower per situation, efficient April 1, 2022.

Change in Class
The outcomes have been seen. For example, probably the most profitable IPOs in current instances – the Rs 5,352-crore IPO of FSN E-Commerce Ventures, father or mother of Nykaa – noticed bids value Rs 89,928 crore in 2021 in its excessive internet value particular person (HNI) class alone. In 2022, the very best bid for HNIs was Rs 30,402 crore for Adani Wilmar‘s Rs 3,600-crore IPO. The subsequent yr, the highest bid from HNIs declined to Rs 7,967 crore for SBFC Finance‘s Rs 1,025-crore public supply.
A Sebi transfer additionally put the brakes on the IPO frenzy amongst HNIs by revising the allocation methodology. One-third of the HNI portion was reserved for candidates with a bid dimension of Rs 2-10 lakh; the remainder was for these with an utility dimension of over Rs 10 lakh.
“On account of regulatory modifications by RBI and Sebi, geared toward curbing speculative and synthetic value discovery, NBFCs should not actively pursuing IPO funding for prime internet value people, who used to borrow substantial quantities for potential itemizing positive aspects,” mentioned Himanshu Jain, govt director, 360 One Prime.
The extent of IPO financing was contingent on oversubscription and the scale of the issuance. Beforehand, HNIs have been capable of make investments as much as 15% of the problem dimension. This product allowed for substantial publicity, with particular person borrower publicity reaching as much as Rs 150 crore, or based mostly on single-party publicity limits.
This dynamic contributed to heightened demand and oversubscriptions inside that class. The HNI portion of IPOs equivalent to Paras Defence and Latent View was subscribed 930 instances and 851 instances, respectively, in 2021.
“There was a steep decline in short-tenor CP issuances for the reason that steps by RBI and Sebi to curtail NBFC lending cash for IPOs,” mentioned Deep Inder Singh, vice-president, Icra. “Additionally, with the discount in funding interval, CPs could not stay essentially the most environment friendly supply of capital for IPO financing. No matter smaller quantity is occurring now, massive share inside that’s in the direction of proprietary operations.”
Brokers Proceed
Inventory broking corporations are, nonetheless, funding purchasers’ IPO bets, although the quantum and phrases should not comparable with the cases seen in 2021 and earlier than. As these entities can finance IPOs solely with their very own money, the extent of such funds flowing into the market has been restricted.
“Retail brokers persist in offering funding for retail buyers, utilising pledged shares or financing as much as Rs 10 lakh,” mentioned Jain of 360 One Prime.
Sebi’s shortening of the timeline for itemizing after an IPO from T+6 to T+3, which has turn out to be voluntary from September 1 and can turn out to be obligatory from December 1, may additionally make IPO financing much less profitable.
“IPO funding for investor classes surpassing Rs 10 lakh has witnessed a complete depletion, however brokers persist in financing retail buyers and people inside the Rs 2-10 lakh vary, aiming to supply enhanced amenities to purchasers,” mentioned Suvajit Ray, head of merchandise and distribution, IIFL Securities. “Nonetheless, with the dwindling IPO itemizing schedule, the feasibility of sustaining such funding is now unsure.”