The great Indian listing boom: From ‘private promises’ to the new era of ‘narrative risk’, and much more: Here’s a significant fireside chat between Madan Bahal, Founder and Managing Director of Adfactors PR, whose career has helped shape the evolution of trusted corporate communications in modern, liberalised India; and Nijay Nair, CEO, Adfactors PR and a prolific, distinguished voice in industry circles, from the 14th Annual Convention of the Association of Investment Bankers of India (AIBI 2026).
The AIBI Annual Convention is a leading platform for discussions on IPOs, capital markets, investor expectations, regulation, and sustainable growth, and the 2026 edition focused on the theme ‘IPOs India: Gateway to Global Capital, Sustainable Growth, Viksit Bharat’.
For professionals across IPO advisory, investor relations, corporate communications, capital markets and for leadership teams, here are insights covering the role of strategic communication in capital markets; Building long-term credibility and trust with investors; Value creation beyond listing milestones; How communication supports governance and transparency in IPO journeys, and much more.
And for complete context, we’ve brought you their chat verbatim.
The historic scale of India’s Capital Markets
Nijay Nair: I thought we will start with some trivia. Today is the 25th anniversary of Wikipedia, which was born in 2001, 25 years ago, and went on to become the world’s largest reference work in human history. This is symbolic considering this august confluence here because I think the muscle memory of the Indian capital markets that is present here is probably the largest in history. So here to share knowledge and reference is the perspective, value communications, and on that note, we are both privileged to be here in this audience and share with you value creation through capital market communications.
Also read: Adfactors PR breaks into 20 Best Financial PR Agencies worldwide
Let’s start by taking a minute on why this theme of the Indian capital markets is so opportune here in the beginning of 2026. Turns out India ranks number one globally, accounting for 30 per cent of all IPOs on the planet, which is no small doing.
And if you take a slightly long vantage point of a decade, turns out 1,800 Indian companies have listed in the main board or SME, and 75 per cent of the capital raised with these 1,800 firms has come in the last five years alone. What a transformation this has been for India!
It is impossible to comprehend this without government reforms and resolve, the unwavering support and work done by our regulator SEBI, and of course the efforts of the market intermediaries and the investment bankers — all of you here today — that have worked relentlessly to create broad-based access to capital.
The challenge of narrative reach and post-listing Trust
Nijay Nair: Truly historic times for our country and one that we will all be privileged to be a part of. But like all good times, these too come marred with some work vectors.
First, when all these things are true, is the problem of story plenty. India’s capital market is one of the largest in the world with over 6,000 companies listed, each one of them trying to communicate with their investors.
The sell-side research — consistent sell-side research — is about 400, and if you are an optimist, about 500 companies. The remainder also need to communicate. And then you have these new IPOs increasing year by year also trying to find messages, reach their stakeholders.
So while we have many corporations, many of them doing some outstanding work, unfortunately for them, the truth is that the freedom of speech is not the same as the freedom of reach.
And while that’s on one side, on the other we see that there is life beyond this strong subscription. While participation, especially in retail, has been broadening sharply, sustained conviction remains a subject to discuss. Even before us, the panel was talking about selling. So there are some unresolved questions with regard to fair valuation expectation setting and most importantly, a subject we care about a lot: post-listing trust.
So in an IPO, it’s not anymore just a fund-raising event, but for us in the reputation business, it is a transition from a private promise to public accountability. And who better to talk about these concepts than my guest here today, Mr Madan Bahal, Founder and Managing Director of Adfactors PR.
Madan Bahal: Thank you very much, Nijay. You mentioned over a long period of time how we have had the opportunity of serving the Indian capital market with almost every year, two-thirds of the funds raised we have been associated with for each of the 35 years now. For that, this is a moment to express gratitude to all of you sitting in the room here. It is with your support and your wishes and with whatever you think of us that we have held this position for a long time, and we hope this support continues and we maintain our best effort to stay worthy of that support.
I’d also like to thank the legal fraternity, the investment bankers, the media, without whom in this business it is not easy to take the message to the world; also to the regulatory framework for providing the guard rails so that good people like us can stay relevant for a long period of time. So I think this is a very good moment to say thank you.
The demographic and digital transformation of the investor base
Nijay Nair: Thirty years, two-thirds of the funds you have raised in all this time… how has capital market communications changed? What has been your…?
Madan Bahal: The question is what has not changed. I think everything has changed. The size of the audience has changed. Just about 10 years ago, we all know we had only 2 crore demat accounts; now we have 20 crore. The number of people who actively invest in IPOs has changed. The number of people who have traded at least once in the last 12 months has become now five or six crore. So the size of the audience has changed and very many new clusters of investors have come up. And it is not only about the traditional Mumbai, Gujarat, or the national highway between Bombay and Delhi, which is Mumbai and Gujarat and Rajasthan and Delhi NCR. It’s a much more widespread phenomenon now and therefore the communication programme has to make an effort to reach all these investors everywhere.
The way the stories are consumed — from traditional media reading habits to digital consumption in a very, very significant way — all of this has a bearing on the way you plan communications for an IPO or any capital market communication programme.
The media itself has got fragmented. Earlier, you could take a few newspapers, and a couple of television channels and be sure that you would reach a large part of the audience. Not any longer. And therefore in a fragmented media landscape where now millions of other people have pitched in to lend a voice to what happens there — that has changed.
Shrinking window for market communication; growing narrative risks
Madan Bahal: The amount of time that was available — I remember when we were doing the tax-free bond offering for Konkan Railway, we had two months to market the IPO. In many IPO cases, we would have at least 15–20 days… one month to market the IPO. That now shrinks to three or four days or five days’ time only when everything gets finalised.
So there’s the time challenge, the audience size has expanded, the media has got fragmented, the digital landscape is going completely nuts in what they say and what they don’t and how they influence the outcomes of any offering.
So the narrative risks have become very, very real. Earlier, the narrative in traditional media was fairly responsible. Even if they had a query, they would reach out to the issuer or the agency and check: ‘Is this right or wrong?’ And you could give a responsible comment. In the digital landscape, it’s free for all; anybody just goes and says anything they want.
And lastly, the resources available.
I remember that 1,000 crore IPO 15 years ago would spend 1 crore. Today, even a billion-dollar IPO, and particularly if this is an offer for sale, the amount of budget that is available to address such a large audience in such a large country becomes really a constraining factor.
The last change, Nijay, is that in the earlier days, once in a while, we would get beaten up — now we don’t. And when I say beaten up, it was physically. In Konkan Railway, my people got beaten up in Goa, and I remember at least one case when we did a very successful IPO, four years later, when we went back with a rights offer or an FPO, the investors in Baroda were so angry that they gheraoed the person and started kind of almost beating him up and we had to physically protect him.
So these are some of the changes.
The elephant in the room: Earned influence and narrative risk
Nijay Nair: Okay. I just want to double-click, however, on this earned influence ecosystem change. We often talk about that. What is the impact of social media and digital commentaries on IPO communication or, for that matter, capital market communications as a whole? That’s an elephant in the room. What’s your commentary on that?
Madan Bahal: I think the mass communication of IPOs in particular and capital markets in general have witnessed a dramatic shift.
I don’t know whether all of us have taken that on board. I don’t know whether we are implementing strategies that effectively address or whether we even have the freedom to do that; that’s another matter. But a lot has changed. I mean, there was a time till maybe 15 years ago, 10 years ago, or even maybe pre-pandemic, we had five or six very responsible national business newspapers, we would have three or four business magazines, two or three business new channels. And if you got the story effectively to them, they would take it forward to the world at large with their own, of course, interpretation and opinion.
That ecosystem of earned influence, as we call it, has changed now, with hundreds of online publications, hundreds of podcasts, YouTube channels, and hundreds of WhatsApp groups where it’s free for all. Whatever they want to say, they say. Or the groups and forums on Telegram or Reddit. Now my marketing programmes, dictated or guided by the bankers, guided by the lawyers, say “No, no, they don’t exist anymore” or “They don’t exist at all, maybe,” and “You should focus here on this.”
But do they have a bearing on what is being said and what is being communicated on the outcomes of an IPO or the way the perception is built or the reputation built or tarnished? The answer is ‘100 per cent yes’. What happens today in the social media actually may be, in many cases, dictating the story in the newspaper tomorrow or on the television channel in the evening.
So these are some very, very significant and real changes that have happened.
Madan Bahal: The important thing is a very new kind of a risk called a narrative risk has emerged. And if you are going public, narrative risk is something that you have to be very, very mindful of. You have to be prepared in advance to deal with it. And therefore that will bring us to another question at some point in the discussion.
But these are some of the significant impacts that the digital ecosystem and the social media ecosystem is having. It’s fairly unregulated, but does it have an impact? Yes, because lakhs and lakhs and lakhs of people are consuming or have made that as a primary source of information.
Why communication is mandatory for b2b firms and public accountability
Nijay Nair: If there is an organic ecosystem that’s going to work anyway, and then you have a buoyant market where you take any IPO and it’s seen as a success — the Indian consumer seems to understand the power of the capital markets — so then from a company’s point of view, is it required to communicate or you just let the market do its thing?
Madan Bahal: Most of the companies who go public are not known. Most of them are B2B businesses. If you see, out of 100, maybe 70 to 80 are B2B businesses. They don’t have a story in the market. They don’t have a reputational footprint. They don’t have a digital footprint because today, everybody checks out on Google or on an LLM ‘what is this company all about?’ And if you don’t have that discovery effectively the way it should be, well, there is a problem.
The other point is if you don’t communicate and you are guided — it’s when you start communicating that’s another question — but if you are guided not to talk at all if possible, and if you are talking then talk only within the strict confines of the offer document, which is good. But if you don’t talk at all, anybody who starts talking about you sets the narrative. The narrative is not yours then; somebody hijacks that narrative. That is one aspect.
There is another aspect: the equity story is not like a literal story or a consumer product story which has only one value proposition consistently expressed over a long period of time. The equity story has multiple dimensions. There is a story of the founder’s legacy or the promoter’s legacy; there is a quality of management story; there is a TAM story; there is a moat story; there is a growth story; there is a story of ESG credentials of the company; there is a story of financial efficiency, how is capital allocated, and an overall reputational footprint that company has built. And therefore this kind of stories, if they have to be built, then of course communication is necessary. Without that, you go with an empty slate.
Madan Bahall: In a tailwind like this in the market that we have, most of the things are selling rather easily. But if such a tailwind is not there, then it becomes difficult. But tailwind or no tailwind, if you are going public, then your responsibility as a public company is to communicate your story so that investors can make informed choices. I would say, as somebody said recently, bring the public back in the IPO.
The ‘Marriage’ of IPO: Sustaining the story post-listing
Nijay Nair: But on that perspective then, it’s a segue to the next part. One is the communication meant for the listing or the IPO, but then in the context of these investor exits — while healthy and cyclical — what is the role of communications in also sustaining the story post-listing? What is your view and how does it stand there?
Madan Bahal: Yeah, there were references made today that the stock listed and it listed well, but after 15 days or 20 days, one-quarter of the companies are below the [listing price]. Because one of the reasons — other than issues of pricing and valuation — could be that the story was not effectively communicated for it to hold the ground. And therefore the story must be told on a sustained basis.
So actually, IPO is like a marriage. But if you have to sustain that marriage between you and the shareholder, that engagement has to be continuous for a long term, much like you will do production, much like you will engage your employees, much like you will do anything else.
Shareholders — and when I say shareholders, it doesn’t mean only the 50 people or 75 people who come into an analyst call and the same guys come again and again and listen to the story, act or don’t act. If you have a lakh or 2 lakh or 1 million shareholders who subscribed to your IPO, they should also be treated with respect, not only at the time of the IPO but also beyond the IPO. So I would recommend that the storytelling has to be a continuous process.
Madan Bahal: Also in a world which is very topsy-turvy — I mean, we have a situation where the DRHP calls for a million disclosures. Why? To protect the investor. The pace of risk — operational risk, business risk, financial risk, geopolitical risk, climate risk, and risk of a hundred kinds are emerging every day. Do these risks have an impact on the company? Are the shareholders interested in knowing that, what impact it’s having? I think this ongoing dialogue should be continued in a very broad sense with not only the institutional investors but also the retail investors. And I think we should change investor relations to also shareholder relations to that extent. I think it will pay rich dividends to the company that does it.
Nijay Nair: I agree with that unequivocally. The obvious question then, therefore, is: Okay, we establish ‘why communicate, what happens’, all of this. But when you are a company thinking about an IPO, when is the right time to think about capital market communications or building or going out and telling your story? What’s the right time?
Timing the narrative: The 12-to-24-month pre-IPO strategy
Madan Bahal: You take any consumer brand; brands are built over time. Brands are not an overnight phenomenon. You take any popular brand — whether it’s an automobile or a consumer product or an FMCG or a durable; the same with corporate brands, the same with investor brands… they are built over time.
If you go at the time of the IPO — and bankers normally like to call us only when everything is sealed and frozen, rightfully so maybe — but after the regulatory process kicks off or the IPO process kicks off, you are constrained in a very, very significant way to tell your story. Any word that is not in the offer document, the rule simply is ‘don’t say it’ because the risk is there, and the risk is a legitimate risk.
So if you have to get your vision out, your legacy, your strategy out, your TAM out, your various strengths and the nuances, your differentiation out, my suggestion is that the story should start at least 12 to 18 to 24 months in advance so that you and the communication consultant and your advisors have enough time to say it well.
Who benefits from this? I think it’s a win-win for everybody. It’s a win-win for the investor because the investor is more informed. It’s a win-win for the intermediary who is taking your story to the investor. It’s a win-win for even the influencers, including the media, who now understand the sector or the story better to communicate it further to their audiences or readers.
Is it better for the company? Yes. I think good storytelling done well in advance, so there is enough conviction, leads to better value, simply. We have many examples of this kind, companies who came into us two years before the IPO, one and a half years before the IPO. Those stories got told very, very well.
I can name some of them — a Waaree would be a good example, started two years ago. A Nykaa would be a good example. There would be many, many such examples that benefited from advance storytelling. So my general one-point takeaway from this is: If the company starts a story better, and if you are a private equity investor sitting in the audience, well, your own stock will have a much better understanding by the market on what you are taking to the market and therefore a better value realisation, better for every stakeholder in the process.
Madan Bahal: And I think there is also time required to build collaterals. Often you find companies going to the public with a very shabby website. Does it matter? Well, it does, because people are going to come. One of the things they will definitely do is see your website. How relevant is the investor content? How relevant does a story come out? How relevant on your own asset? Are your social media handles from a LinkedIn page to a Facebook page, in order? The way they should be?
Most of the promoters — at least the first-time promoters — have never spoken in public. And therefore when they meet media or investors for the first time, they are not able to withstand the scrutiny as effectively as they should. So training them, coaching them is also an important thing that works well.
Watch: Madan Bahal on building a National Asset like Adfactors PR with Corporate Spirituality
If your company is going for the first time from a sector, the sector is not exposed to the market, then again the business model has to be explained, the sector has to be explained. And therefore in general, the earlier you start, the better off you are.
Looking ahead
Nijay Nair: Before we go, a last question. It’s more personal to you in terms of being a firm of such significance to the Indian capital markets ecosystem — you are seeing it evolve with some pace. I know that you take it very seriously that we serve India Inc. well. So from that vantage point of continuing to be relevant to India Inc. in the way it’s unfolding… and what the future looks like to you in the context of how the Indian capital markets is going?
Madan Bahal: Oh, I am an eternal optimist. And in a very, very large sense, I think the Indian economy will continue to do well for a long period of time powered by 1.4 billion aspirations that power it. Regardless of the political dispensation, regardless of whatever else happens, that power will drive the growth of our economy because so many aspirations have to be met.
But there are many other things happening. Among the things that changed — you know, 10-20 years ago, the Indian family business was a very introverted business: ‘Apni kahaani bolo mat, zyaada bolo mat, nahin to income tax wala aa jaayega, nahin to bhai aa jaayega (Don’t tell your story, don’t talk too much, otherwise the income tax person will come, or something else will happen’) … they were very very scared. They were very introspective. But things have taken such a turn that I today don’t know of any family business which even has a 100-crore revenue but doesn’t have an IPO on its mind someday or the other. That has happened.
Of course, the investor pool — we now have 20 crore investors in the system. So all things well — the growth trajectory of the Indian economy, today our market capitalisation is 1.2 times GDP — I think all these things augur well. And with the collective effort of everybody in this room and some others who are not in the room, and the government at large and societal interest will drive the markets to significant (heights)
Nijay Nair: So continue to stay relevant – that’s our internal statement.
Madan Bahal: Yes. We’ve been around for 40 years. The largest IPOs in this country that happened at any point in time — we were a part of it. The most complicated stories. But our work has not been limited to… it’s not only IPOs. We handle many, many complex situations — whether it is a boardroom dispute, whether it is litigation, whether it’s a bankruptcy matter, whether it is a hostile M&A or a takeover or a proxy shareholder issue.
We work across a very broad range of work for some of the largest corporations and institutions in this country. And that 40 years of work puts one responsibility on you — that market position puts one responsibility on us — and that is to stay relevant all the time. That is to build capacity to respond to the needs of the times.
Madan Bahal: And I think if there is one commitment we should make to ourselves and to the house – that we will keep trying and we will keep doing this in the times to come.
