Asia’s IPOs Dwarf the Rest of the World
India led by a long shot in purely numerical terms last year, but the entire region pulled in more proceeds than the US and Europe combined.
The initial public offering is where the road meets the rubber. Yes, there are many ways for startups and entrepreneurial businesses to raise funds by way of venture capital and private equity, or even by taking out a plain vanilla loan from a corporate banker.
But you know you have well and truly arrived at the apex of all fundraising when you are being IPOed on a major public exchange by a marquee investment bank.
India’s Leadership
Last year was a watershed year for the region, as the number and volume of IPOs in the Asia Pacific region managed to practically put the rest of the world to shame, a Visual Capitalist graphic published on Tuesday shows.
When it comes to numbers, India’s count of 327 was a very strong first-place showing, although the rest of the region made strong contributions with China (98), Japan (84), South Korea (75), Hong Kong (64), and Malaysia (49).
Lagging Badly
The total number of IPOs region-wide was 697. The rest of the world, including the US? 350 – or just about half that number.
The proceed numbers were nothing to be ashamed of either. Although the US continued to claim first with $32.8 billion in proceeds, India was second ($19.9 billion).
Record-breaking Year
Indeed, it was a record-breaking year for the subcontinent, as it generated the highest IPO volumes and proceeds in its history thanks to strong economic growth and corporate earnings, particularly in the first half, as Visual Capitalist indicates.
But even more importantly, on a global basis, total proceeds from the Asia Pacific region were $50.3 billion. The rest of the world? Only slightly more at $56.2 billion.
More in Favor
There are a few important caveats behind those numbers as well. About one-third of the US’s 101 cross-border listings were Chinese companies. That by itself would turn the numbers and proceeds even more significantly in the region’s favor.
Another thing that should be mentioned is that IPO activity in 2024 was heavily concentrated, with 60 percent of all IPOs worldwide taken up by tech, media and telecom listings, industrials as well as consumer goods and services.
Positive Outlook
At this point, it doesn’t even look like Trump 2.0’s moody, ad hoc tariff-ghosting, or gaslighting, depending on how you look at it, is going to put the brakes on all that.
Visual Capitalist maintains the continued expected monetary easing steps by central banks this year should keep global IPO markets vibrant, particularly for AI, clean energy, and digital finance.
The DeepSeek Model
That also bodes well for the region, as they likely have strong contenders in all those sectors that could prompt the same market carnage that DeepSeek did to Nvidia and the Magnificent 7 in January (collated Google search).
