(Bloomberg) — KPMG expects digital companies in India to raise about $10 billion through initial public offerings in the next six months, as investors continue to pump money into the country’s technology sector.
“India is unveiling an absolutely new area of growth with these digital companies for hungry global asset managers,” Srinivas Balasubramanian, senior partner and head of corporate finance at KPMG India, told Bloomberg Television’s Rishaad Salamat and Haslinda Amin in an interview. “A lot of money printed during the Donald Trump administration is invariably finding its way to the stock markets globally and India is one of the beneficiaries.”
After nearly two years of enduring the coronavirus pandemic, a robust return to life aided by a mass vaccination drive, an accommodative central bank policy and expected economic growth of 9.5% this year are also fueling India’s stock market rally.
Indian companies have raised $10.8 billion from first-time share sales this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At this pace, 2021 could well surpass the record $11.8 billion mopped up in 2017.
Balasubramanian said the market’s sentiment has been accentuated by the Chinese government’s regulatory crackdown on its technology companies. In the past when asset managers had money to invest, “90% of that went to China due to their growth and consumption story, but now 80% is coming to India,” he said.
The KPMG senior partner sees old-economy companies partly driving mergers and acquisitions as they sell assets to pare debt, as well as digital and financial-services firms that seek to consolidate by using stock as currency.
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