Fund raising from capital markets may rise 21% to Rs 14.7 lakh crore in FY2025: SEBI Chief

“If we project for the next quarter (Q4), we will probably end somewhere over Rs 14 lakh crore raised for the year (FY2025), in terms of capital, both equity and debt,” Buch said at an event organized by SEBI and National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM).

She said in the January-March quarter, another Rs 1 lakh crore is expected to be raised through equity, taking the overall fund raise via equity to `4.3 lakh crore by the end of March 2025.

To scale up fund raising through rights issue, Buch said the regulator has come up with a system in which the total end-to-end time for a rights issue has been reduced to 26 days from 317 days. Rights issue is an offer given by the company to its existing shareholders to buy additional shares at a specific date and at a reduced price.

Buch said fund raising through Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT), Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and municipal bonds is currently low, but the potential to raise money through these instruments is high over the next few years. In the first nine months, resources mobilised through InvITs and REITs stood at Rs 10,000 crore.

While an InvIT raises funds by issuing units to investors and invests those funds primarily in assets in the infrastructure sector, a REIT raises funds by issuing units to investors and invests those funds primarily in assets in the real estate sector.

Underscoring the importance of the domestic bond market, Buch said that it has significantly contributed to the capital formation in the country.

“The bond market contributes almost Rs 60 for every Rs 100 that the banking system gives to corporate India. It plays a vital role in capital formation,” she said. The primary market for bonds in the country is very strong. However, the traction in the secondary market is moderate because most of the investors in the segment are buy-and-hold investors, she said.

Highlighting the role of domestic institutional investors (DIIs), Buch said these investors have lent a countervailing force in times of volatility in foreign flows. This has given a tremendous resilience to the domestic market.