Bajaj Housing Fin IPO to Open Next Week; More 'Upper Layer' NBFCs to Follow Suit to Meet RBI Norm

With Bajaj Housing Finance set to launch its initial public offering (IPO) next week, at least three more 'upper layer' non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are expected to go public within a year to meet the RBI's mandatory listing requirements.

The three NBFCs that are likely to float public issues are Tata Capital Financial Services, HDB Financial Services (NBFC arm of HDFC Bank), and Aditya Birla Finance, investment bankers said.

"Given the appetite in the capital market for good quality businesses, and subject to valuations we will definitely see quite a lot of NBFCs going for listing. This is expected; not just to satisfy RBI's requirement to list, but also to have the ability to keep raising money for growth once the company is listed," Sachin Mehta, Director, Investment banking, Anand Rathi Advisors, said.

Overall, Tata Sons, Tata Capital Financial Services, Piramal Capital and Housing Finance, HDB Financial Services, and Aditya Birla Finance are required to list in a year's time due to their inclusion in Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) list of ‘upper layer’ NBFCs.

Of these, Piramal Capital and Housing Finance will merge with Piramal Enterprises and Tata Sons is likely to consider all options to avoid listing, he said.

Although analysts believe that the IPO of Tata Sons could be a game-changer for the market, offering significant upside potential for investors. The listing may attract both domestic and global interest, given the stature of Tata Sons as the holding company of one of India’s largest conglomerates.

"If there was a listing of Tata Sons at some point, it would be a marquee event for India’s fast-growing equity capital markets. Given the offering of its kind from the most reputed groups in India, there would definitely be strong global and domestic interest for such an offering," Dharmesh Mehta, CEO of DAM Capital, said.

Market experts also predict that a Tata Sons IPO could unlock significant shareholder value, with analysts estimating that even a 5 per cent stake could inject over Rs 55,000 crore into the market, increasing liquidity and trading volume.

However, despite these optimistic projections, Tata Sons has reportedly applied to the RBI to voluntarily surrender its registration certificate, aiming to avoid mandatory listing.     Now, all eyes would be on RBI for its stand on Tata Sons' application.     The RBI introduced a revised scale-based regulation (SBR) framework in October 2021 to address systemic risk and strengthen governance.      This came against the backdrop of the collapse of IL&FS in 2018, followed by the downfall of DHFL, which had a ripple effect on the entire financial system, particularly causing significant liquidity challenges.

Under the SBR framework, NBFCs were categorised into four layers -- base layer, middle layer, upper layer, and top layer-- based on their size, activities, and risk levels. Also, RBI mandated that NBFCs categorized as upper layer (UL) NBFC have to be listed within three years of them being designated as an UL NBFC.

RBI issued its list of 16 UL NBFCs in September 2022 and the list was subsequently updated in 2023 whereby Shanghvi Finance was dropped.

"As per the last RBI release, there are 15 upper layer NBFCs out of which Piramal Capital & Housing will merge with Piramal Enterprises and Tata Sons is likely to consider all options to avoid listing," Anand Rathi Advisors' Mehta said.

Of the remaining names, 9 are already listed on the bourses and Bajaj Housing will hit the market soon. Therefore, there are only three candidates who have to go public as per RBI's requirement.

Bajaj Housing Finance is set to float its Rs 6,560-crore initial share sale on September 9. The share sale is being conducted to comply with RBI's regulations, which require UL NBFCs to be listed on stock exchanges by September 2025.

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said markets need many more quality IPOs like Bajaj Housing Finance. More supplies of quality stocks can cool this market, which is overheated in the mid and small-cap segments. There is lot of appetite for reasonably priced IPOs.