The ICICI Bank, India’s second-largest private lender, is soon going to begin its biggest hiring drive in investment banking and institutional equities units in four years, as it expects a surge in companies going public, according to a report.
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The Mumbai-based bank plans to add five mid-to-senior level executives in each of the two units, which employs 130 bankers in total as of now, the report said quoting Ajay Saraf, head of investment banking and institutional equities at ICICI Securities Ltd. The new roles will be concentrated in sectors such as technology and health care, the Bloomberg report mentioned.
“We have not hired these kinds of numbers since 2017. We see investor interest disproportionately higher for these sectors in the next 12 months,” said Saraf, the report added.
India is joining the global share sale frenzy due to the availability of enough liquidity in the market with foreign investors and retail buyers hunting for new ideas for investment, the report said, adding that the boom in the domestic tech market, which earlier in April witnessed six unicorns in a single week, is also expanding the initial public offering (IPO) space for bankers.
About $3 billion has been raised through public offerings in India so far in 2021, giving the best start to the year since 2018, according to the report. It means the amount could even overwhelm 2020’s $4.6 billion haul as companies such as Zomato, Policybazaar and Nykaa E-Retail are set to become public this year, the report added.
ICICI Securities stands first for equity offerings in India so far in 2021, a jump from 2020 when it ranked 10th, according to the report.
Saraf is hopeful of more deals to go around as high-quality firms come to market in the coming three to six months. He predicted that the number of transactions will be widespread but the rise in volume will depend on the issuers’ decisions on the size.
The banker doesn’t expect those listings to take the shape of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). Investors have flocked to SPACs, the vehicle that raises money from public listings with an aim to merge with private companies and Indian targets are not immune to this frenzy, according to the report.