With several $500 million-plus deals in the pipeline -- including ICICI Prudential AMC, Lenskart, PhonePe, Groww, PhysicsWallah, Meesho, Pine Labs, and Zepto -- investment bankers look poised for another year of hefty bonuses in 2025.
Investment bankers have plenty to cheer this Diwali, having garnered close to ₹600 crore ($70 million) in fees for managing seven initial public offerings (IPOs) completed in the first half of October.
The most lucrative mandates came from the blockbuster listings of appliance major LG Electronics India and the Tata group's shadow bank, Tata Capital.
According to final red herring prospectuses (RHPs) filed with the markets regulator, LG paid ₹226 crore to its book running lead managers (BRLMs) -- roughly 2 per cent of its issue size.
Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Axis Capital, BofA Securities, and Citigroup acted as BRLMs for the ₹11,300 crore LG IPO, the eighth-largest in the domestic market.
In contrast, Tata Capital's BRLMs accepted a thinner fee of about 1 per cent, translating into ₹159 crore, for managing its ₹15,512-crore initial share sale -- the fourth-largest in India.
The mandate was shared among 10 bankers, including Kotak Mahindra Capital, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, HDFC Bank, and HSBC Securities.
For the other five IPOs that hit the market this month, fees ranged between 1.4 per cent and 3.2 per cent of the issue size, with pharma firm Rubicon Research at the higher end of the band.
October has been one of the busiest months for primary market activity, with cumulative IPO fundraising exceeding ₹35,000 crore ($4 billion).
To put the $70 million payday in perspective, investment bankers collectively earned about $438 million from the equity capital market, comprising IPOs, block trades, and qualified institutional placements, during the first nine months of 2025, according to LSEG data.
In absolute terms, Hyundai Motor India's ₹27,870 crore IPO -- the largest ever in the domestic market -- remains the most lucrative, generating fees of ₹493 crore.
Other notable mandates include Paytm's ₹18,300 crore IPO in 2021 (₹324 crore fee), Vodafone Idea's ₹18,000 crore follow-on offering last year (₹287 crore fee), and Zomato's ₹9,375 crore IPO (₹229 crore fee).
For large private-sector deals, BRLM fees typically range between 1 per cent and 3 per cent of the total issue size, though public-sector mandates tend to fetch lower rates.
After a record ₹1.6 trillion raised through IPOs in calendar 2024, this year's mobilisation has already crossed ₹1.1 trillion.
With several $500 million-plus deals in the pipeline -- including ICICI Prudential AMC, Lenskart, PhonePe, Groww, PhysicsWallah, Meesho, Pine Labs, and Zepto -- investment bankers look poised for another year of hefty bonuses in 2025.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
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