Only 18% fresh capital raised in IPOs used to fund company's needs

Companies looked to give shareholders an exit rather than fund their business needs

Companies raising money from the market for the first time in 2019 largely looked to provide an exit to shareholders, rather than garner capital for the firm’s needs.

Only 17.7 per cent of the Rs 11,115.6 crore raised through such initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2019 was in the form of fresh capital used to fund the company’s needs, shows an analysis of numbers from primary market tracker Prime Database. 

This was amongst the lowest ever share of fresh capital in overall IPO fund-raising.  The only other year in which such a lower share was seen was in 2017 (17.4