In what is being called a record-breaking IPO “gold rush”, promoters, private-equity funds and early-stage backers of Indian companies have sold shares worth more than ₹1 lakh crore through Offer-for-Sale (OFS) routes during 2025 — the highest ever in the country’s stock-market history.
📈 Why This Year Is Unprecedented
- So far in 2025, the Indian primary market has raised about ₹1.76 lakh crore through IPOs, and around 63 % of that — over ₹1.11 lakh crore — has come from existing shareholders selling stock instead of companies raising fresh capital.
- This is the first time that exits by promoters and early investors via OFS have crossed the ₹1 lakh crore mark, shattering the previous year’s peak OFS haul of ₹95,000 crore.
- The trend reflects strong market euphoria, ample liquidity and investor demand for newly listed stocks, providing lucrative exit opportunities for those who backed these companies in their early stages.
💡 Which Deals Contributed Most
Some of the largest IPOs in 2025 — especially those with significant OFS components — played a key role in this record exit:
- LG Electronics India saw its entire ₹11,607 crore IPO comprise OFS.
- Tata Capital’s ₹15,500 crore IPO included over ₹8,600 crore in OFS.
- Lenskart and Groww had major OFS components, with a large portion of proceeds going to existing investors.
- Financial issues like HDB Financial and NSDL also carried high OFS percentages.
🔍 What This Means
- For early investors and promoters: The boom has offered significant wealth realization, especially for tech and new-age companies that saw valuation expansion prior to their public listings.
- For the primary market: A high OFS share means a large proportion of IPO proceeds didn’t go into corporate coffers for capex or expansion, but instead transferred from private holders to public investors.
- Market sentiment vs fundamentals: While this “selling spree” underscores bullish sentiment, some analysts caution that high valuations and heavy OFS activity may mean retail investors need to be clear about what price they’re paying for underlying business value.
📊 Broader Context
India’s IPO market as a whole has had an extraordinary year: overall IPO fundraising is set to top prior records — around ₹1.75–1.8 lakh crore in 2025 — driven by both large mainboard deals and strong investor appetite.
In summary: A historic exit wave has marked India’s 2025 IPO boom — promoters and early investors have taken advantage of strong demand and liquidity to cash out more than ₹1 lakh crore via offers for sale, even as the overall primary market activity hit record levels.
