Three IPOs open on 9 September

From card printing to furniture rental

Three unrelated companies open initial public offerings on Wednesday, all closing Friday and listing on 17 September, together seeking about INR 2,936 crore. Roughly 61 percent of that, INR 1,791 crore, will go to existing shareholders selling down rather than into the businesses themselves.

The proportions differ sharply. Karamtara Engineering, a Mumbai-based manufacturer of solar mounting structures, transmission line hardware and fasteners, is raising INR 875 crore at a band of INR 241 to INR 254, of which INR 675 crore is fresh capital. Around INR 600 crore of that goes to repaying debt. The company reported revenue of INR 4,312 crore in FY2026, up 36.5 percent, and profit of INR 228.8 crore, up 64.2 percent, though borrowings rose from INR 556 crore to INR 1,030 crore over the year. Notably, the issue is half the INR 1,750 crore Karamtara proposed in its draft papers filed in January 2025. Promoters Tanveer Singh and Rajiv Singh will hold 82.01 percent after the issue.

Manipal Payment and Identity Solutions is seeking INR 805 crore at a band of INR 322 to INR 339, comprising a INR 320 crore fresh issue and a INR 485 crore offer for sale by promoter Manipal Technologies, valuing the company at about INR 7,858 crore at the top of the band. The company is a substantial and little-known piece of Indian payments infrastructure, estimating that it accounted for 36.4 percent of credit card and 30.9 percent of debit card issuance in FY2026, on 13.54 million credit cards and 72.66 million debit cards billed. Revenue rose 5.6 percent to INR 1,326.8 crore in FY2026 while profit fell 10.2 percent to INR 253.5 crore, against a high base that included INR 110 crore of exceptional gains the previous year.

Rentomojo is the outlier. Its INR 1,255.57 crore issue is roughly 88 percent offer for sale, with only INR 150 crore of fresh capital. Accel India, Edelweiss, IDG Ventures India, ValueQuest, Madison India, GMO and founder Geetansh Bamania are among those selling. The Bengaluru furniture and appliance rental platform seeks a valuation of about INR 4,246 crore, and reported total income of INR 394.09 crore in FY2026, up 45 percent, with profit of INR 104.3 crore, up 142 percent. It had 227,511 live subscribers across 22 cities as of 30 September 2025.

Timing explains the clustering, and two deadlines converge at the end of this month. Under SEBI's ICDR Regulations, an issue can open only where the restated audited financial statements in the offer document are no more than six months old at the opening date, which makes audited FY2026 accounts usable until around 30 September for companies with a 31 March year end. Separately, a public issue must open within twelve months of SEBI issuing its observations, and by a circular dated 7 April, SEBI extended observation letters expiring between April and September 2026 to a common deadline of 30 September, citing difficulties issuers faced amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

The effect is a single closing window. Any issuer holding an extended observation letter and reporting to a March year end must open before the end of September or refile. All three of this week's issues open on 9 September and list on 17 September, well inside it.

The queue is visible in the volumes. Mainboard IPOs have raised INR 80,698 crore across 74 issues so far in 2026 according to Prime Database, and September is expected to exceed July, the year's biggest month at over INR 20,100 crore. Twenty-one issues opened in August against twelve in July.

Volume has not meant returns. Of the 59 companies that listed in 2026, Prime Database records that only 22 delivered investors much more than an initial listing pop.