NEW DELHI: India’s second-largest private lender ICICI Bank Ltd is on a hiring spree, anticipating that fundraising by companies will hit a record high this year and next.

       The firm plans 15 new hires in its investment banking division this year to beef up its mergers and acquisitions, private equity and fundraising practices, and another 15 in sales, trading and research, said Ajay Saraf, head of investment banking and institutional equities at the lender’s ICICI Securities Ltd unit.

       Positions range from associate to executive vice-president level, with most of the senior hires coming from rival banks, Saraf told Bloomberg News in a recent interview in Mumbai.

       “Over the next three, four years we’ll see very robust deal activity, both on the private and public side,” Saraf said.

       “India is becoming a very favourable investment destination – the market where everybody wants to be.”

       The moves will increase ICICI Securities’ headcount to 190.

       Others, including JM Financial Ltd and Jefferies Financial Group Inc, are also planning to expand their India operations to capitalise on the boom in deals.

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       About US$27bil was raised in initial public offerings (IPOs) and follow-on share sales in India last year, exceeding Hong Kong for the first time in at least three decades, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Of that total, US$7.5bil was raised from IPOs, still well off the 2021 record of US$18bil.

       Saraf expects more than US$18bil to be raised in IPOs in India in both 2024 and 2025, with at least four listings topping the billion-US dollar mark.

       “A lot of people are waiting on the sidelines to see whether the market can absorb a large issuance,” Saraf said.

       “As soon as they get that assurance, there are a whole lot of companies waiting to raise money.”

       Political stability helps, he said, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi projected to prevail in elections this year. Economic growth is also strong – the International Monetary Fund forecasts India’s real gross domestic product will expand more than 6% this year and in 2025.

       The benchmark Sensex index has risen every year since 2015, including a 19% gain in 2023.

       For mergers and acquisitions, Saraf said investors are increasingly interested in manufacturing and industrial businesses.

       “We have seen that sector is the fastest growing,” he said.

       One example of the rise of India’s manufacturing sector is Vietnamese automaker VinFast’s announcement yesterday of plans to spend up to US$2bil to build an electric vehicle factory in India, the world’s third-largest auto market by sales.

       The factory that will be built in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state will be the company’s first foray into India and follows VinFast’s launch of sales in the United States and other major markets. — Bloomberg