CHENNAI: Tata Capital, which was rule-bound to get listed before or by September 30, has sought an extension from the Reserve Bank to launch its mega public issue that may raise close to Rs 18,000 crore, during the second week of October.
Sources familiar with the development told The New Indian Express on Friday that the RBI has exempted the company to launch the IPO, which is to raise around Rs 18,000 crore, seeking an enterprise valuation in the $18-20 billion range, in the first half of next month.
The company has reportedly sought more time to complete the procedures to get the requisite approvals.
The October timeline has come as a relief to certain market intermediaries and brokers. Gujarat-based brokers pointed that many prospective investors would not invest during Pitrupaksh-Shradh period and during the run-up to Dassehra day (October 2), which is considered to be the auspicious day for new beginnings.
“Since Tata Capital IPO is a very large one, it is important to get the support of all retail investors from across the markets. More time is needed to market the public issue well,” said a broker from Surendranagar, Gujarat.
“Tata Capital has already got an encouraging response from domestic and international institutional investors, qualified institutional bidders and anchor investors, “ the broker cited above said.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which owns around 1.8% in Tata Capital (as on August 4, 2025) stands to get multi-bagger returns of 12-13x on its investment made in Tata Cleantech Capital (TCCL) --- now a subsidiary of Tata Capital focussed on green and sustainable financing.
Meanwhile, some other market observers speculated that the changes announced by markets regulator Sebi with respect to large sized IPOs could have a bearing on the Tata Capital IPO. The regulator suggested lowering the retail portion for bigger issues and also lowering the 10% mandatory minimum public float.
Market observers cited the case of National Securities Depository (NSDL) which went public last month with Rs 4,011 crore issue after getting multiple extensions from the Sebi before August 14. The earlier extension was set to expire on July 31. It was originally expected to complete the listing by April 13, 2024. The deadline was first extended to July 31, 2025, and now to August 14, 2025.
The fate of Tata Capital IPO is being closely watched by several NBFC BFSI IPO bound companies in the waiting – such as Credila, Avanse Financial, Canara HSBC Life, Canara Rebeco, Groww, Gaja Capital, Hero Fincorp, InCred, ARCIL, Turtlemint, etc.
Tata Capital is the third largest diversified NBFC, with a comprehensive lending product suite. It also has the highest credit rating with a diverse liability profile resulting in one of the lowest cost of funds among peers. The company has completed its overseas road-shows by September 2 post which it was planning the issue in the third week of September, well within the regulatory mandate.
An October 22, 2022 RBI circular mandated all the unlisted large NBFCs such as Tata Capital, Tata Sons (which has reportedly got the RBI mandate to remain a private entity though a formal word on its application filed in August 2024 to surrender its NBFC licence is still pending with the Mint Road) to get listed before September 30, 2025.
Accordingly, two such upper layer NBFCs—Bjajaj Housing Finance and HDB Financial from the HDFC Bank group went public in August 2024 and June 2025.
More importantly, many smaller non-banks and financial sector companies are holding back their issues to see how the Tata Capital issue would fare with investors.
While SK Finance had called of its IPO plan recently, education focused lenders Credila and Avanse Financial; Canara HSBC Life, Canara Rebeco, brokerages Gorww, Gaja Capital; Hero Fincorp, Incred, bad-bank Arcil and startup Turtlemint are all waiting to text the primary market waters after seeing how Tata Capital issue fares.
Through the IPO comprising sale of as much as 47.58 crore shares, of which fresh issue is of 21 crore shares and the offer for sale is of 26.58 crore shares, according to the updated draft red herring prospectus filed late August.
Under the OFS component, Tata Sons, which owns almost 88.6% (down from 92.8% before the recent rights issue) will offload as much as 23 crore shares, while International Finance Corporation, which is the only external shareholder in the company, will divest 3.58 crore shares from its 1.8% holding.
Tata Investment Corporation, which in turn is owned 68.51% by Tata Sons, with 2.5% as of December 2024, making it the second largest shareholder.
The other shareholders include Tata Chemicals (0.09%), Tata Consumer Products (0.02%), Tata Motors (0.12%) and Tata Power (0.06%).
This IPO will be the first by a Tata group firm after the bumper listing of Tata Technologies in 2023, which was oversubscribed by close to 69.4 times, raising Rs 3,042 crore. The issue got bids worth Rs 1.57 trillion from 73.58 lakh applications, breaking the record set by LIC’s issue in May 2022.