IPO lock-in expiry: Shares worth ₹22,700 cr to enter stock market in 2 months

Amidst ongoing volatility in the equity market, shares worth nearly ₹22,700 crore ($26 billion) could enter Indian stock markets in two months as the lock-in period of many recently-listed companies will come to an end. The IPO lock-in expiry of shares worth $26 billion of 64 companies that got listed recently will be lifted between March-April of this year, according to Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research.

“Between 28th Feb 2025, and 30th Apr 2025, a total of 64 companies are slated to have their pre-listing shareholder lock-ins lifted amounting to the value of $26 billion,” Nuvama said in a report.

The value pertains to the total lock-up opening shares, but not all of these shares need to come for sale as a sizable portion of these shares are also held by promoter and group. The analysis is based on companies listed up until February 25, 2025, the report noted.

As per the report, four companies - Dr. Agarwal's Health Care, Ajax Engineering, Hexaware Technologies, and Quality Power Electrical – will see their pre-listing shareholder lock-ins lifted in the next 30 days. Hexaware Technologies would see the biggest chunk of locked-in share expiry as 18 million stocks of the IT services company will enter the secondary market on March 19. It would be followed by Dr. Agarwal's Health Care (11 mn shares), Quality Power Electrical (5 mn shares), and Ajax Engineering (3 mn shares).

Besides, the three-month lock-in period will expire for 21 companies in the next 60 days, including Vishal Mega Mart, One Mobikwik Systems, Denta Water & Infra , Senores Pharmaceuticals, Unimech Aerospace & Mfg, Indo Farm Equipment , and others. Among these newly listed companies, Vishal Mega Mart would see 154 million shares entering stock market on March 17.

Meanwhile, 6 months and beyond lock-in periods will expire for 22 listed stocks, including Premier Energies, Samhi Hotels, Orient Technology, Exicom Express, Gala Precision, RR Kabel, and Zaggle Prepaid.

IPO fundraising fizzled in 2025

After a record fundraising in 2024, there is a sudden pause in initial public offering (IPO) activities in 2025 as only 10 main board IPOs debuted on the domestic bourses in January-February period, versus 16 in the same period last year. 10 companies cumulatively raised around ₹16,000 crore, with nearly two-third garnered by two companies - Hexaware Technologies (₹8,750 crore) and Dr Agarwal's Health Care (₹3,027 crore). In the calendar year 2025, 91 IPOs raised a total of ₹1,59,676 crore, sharply higher than ₹49,437 crore garnered by 58 IPOs in 2023; ₹59,939 crore by 40 firms in 2022; and ₹1,19,882 crore by 63 entrants in 2021.

The slowdown in IPO activity can be attributed to weakness in secondary market, primarily led by foreign fund outflows, and subdued listing gains. As per the exchange data, 6 out of 10 main board listed in CY25 are trading below their issue price, while nearly half of 2024 entrant have delivered negative return.

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