“My father was within the enterprise of supplying hand pumps to rural villages,” the 51-year-old mentioned in an interview. “He noticed that entry to electrical energy was sparse in these areas, so he began Premier Photo voltaic in 1995,” Saluja mentioned.
Three a long time on, the corporate rechristened Premier Energies is the nation’s second largest built-in photo voltaic module and photo voltaic cell producer behind the Adani Group. Traders bullish on the federal government’s investments in photo voltaic power have bid up Premier shares practically threefold since their debut in September, valuing it at roughly $7 billion.
Saluja is among the 4 entrepreneurs within the renewable power house whose private fortunes have soared after their corporations listed on the inventory exchanges final yr.
The others are Hitech C Doshi of the Waaree Group, which additionally makes photo voltaic modules, Bhavish Aggarwal of electrical automobile maker Ola Electric Mobility Ltd and Manoj Ok Upadhyaya of photo voltaic power generator Acme Solar Holdings Ltd..Prospects for photo voltaic gamers seem brilliant as India goals so as to add one other 100 GW of capability within the subsequent 4 years, in line with a report by Frost & Sullivan. However this might be a double-edged sword, mentioned Saluja.He sees a surge in new capability in photo voltaic cell and module manufacturing over the subsequent 18-24 months. “There’s undoubtedly going to be consolidation within the sector, so solely those that scale up will survive,” Saluja mentioned.
The same pattern may play out in India’s fairness market, which was on a roll in 2024, with a document 1.66 trillion rupees ($19.82 billion) raised via IPOs in comparison with 650 billion rupees final yr.
Round 85 corporations purpose to checklist on the inventory exchanges subsequent yr, collectively focusing on 1.53 trillion rupees ($18 billion), in line with information from Prime Database.
On the similar time, issuers should brace for headwinds from a slowing financial system, weak company income, unstable rupee, tepid client spending and incoming US President Donal Trump’s tariff insurance policies.
Kunal Rambhia, fund supervisor and head of buying and selling methods at The Streets, a Mumbai-based long-short fund expects rising world tensions and the specter of tariffs to set off a deep correction available in the market this yr.
“The IPO pattern will proceed for the primary half of 2025, however may slowdown within the second. Startups and tech-companies will discover it tougher to checklist, significantly within the second half as a result of there might be a liquidity crunch,” he mentioned.
Others are extra sanguine, contemplating that home inflows into equities have been robust for some time now.
“The Indian IPO market is not depending on overseas traders as home traders and home establishments have the funds for,” mentioned Himanshu Kohli, co-founder of Consumer Associates, a multi-family workplace and personal wealth adviser managing over $6 billion in belongings.
“Non-public fairness companies and household places of work have moved an enormous amount of cash into unlisted shares and pre-IPO corporations over the past yr in anticipation of a profitable exit in 2025,” mentioned Kohli.
That ought to hearten IPO-bound corporations, with the pipeline more likely to be dominated by monetary companies corporations, digital producers, energy era companies and software program corporations. Large names anticipated to file for itemizing this yr embody Nexus Enterprise Companions-backed on-line grocer Zepto, Walmart Inc.-backed e-commerce large Flipkart India Pvt, Prosus NV-owned funds agency PayU and its rival Peak XV Companions-backed Pine Labs.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd is predicted to carve out its retail enterprise and telecom entity as separate listed corporations.
During the last three years, India’s IPO markets have been dominated by a flood of micro, small and medium-sized corporations, with 90% of them elevating lower than $100 million, in line with information compiled by Bloomberg. Whereas 2025 may even see some massive well-known corporations checklist their shares, on a regular basis entrepreneurs throughout India don’t wish to miss out on the IPO boom.
“Founders have realized that its higher to personal 75% of a $100 million firm listed on the exchanges than personal 100% of a $10 million firm,” mentioned Vishnu Agarwal, chief govt officer of Inventory Knocks, a Kolkata-based funding analysis firm.
“There are going to be a tsunami of offers within the coming yr as founders are hungry for progress,” he mentioned.