Kolkata: Bandhan Financial Services, the promoter of Bandhan Bank, is likely to offload stakes in the bank in small bouts to conform to the regulations of bringing down its shareholding to 26%, instead of a lump sale.

As per the bank’s licensing agreement with the Reserve Bank of India, the promoter must reduce the stake to 26% by 2030.

“There is sufficient time. We have no plans for a bulk offloading in one go,” chairman Chandra Shekhar Ghosh told ET. The promoter brought down its holdings in the bank to 37.54% as of end June from 38.98% three months prior. The holding was 39.74% at the end of 2025. The recent share sales likely occurred on the open market.

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The main business of Bandhan Financial Services is managing its investments. It has two subsidiaries – Bandhan Financial Holdings and Bandhan Technologies. The first one is the holding company for Bandhan Bank, Bandhan AMC, Bandhan Mutual Fund Trustee, Bandhan Investment Managers (Mauritius) and Bandhan Life Insurance.

Bandhan Financial Services owned 59.98% in Bandhan AMC and 97.16% in Bandhan Life Insurance Company as of March 31, 2026.
Meanwhile, the promoter has proposed a stock split. As per the plan, each existing equity share of face value ₹10 would be divided into five shares having a face value of ₹2 each. Its shareholders would review this plan at the annual general meeting scheduled on September 22. A stock split would likely help the company at the time of going public, making the share price attractive for retail investors.

Mumbai: About two dozen companies have days left to launch their initial public offerings (IPOs) before regulatory approvals expire. They will need to start the share sale process by the September 30 deadline or refile offer documents, potentially delaying fundraising plans.

Approvals by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for at least 23 companies, collectively looking to raise ₹40,775 crore, are set to expire by the end of the month, Prime Database data showed.

Among the larger IPOs in the pipeline are Mumbai-based Credila Financial Services and Kachchh-based specialty chemicals maker Dorf-Ketal Chemicals India, with proposed issue sizes of ₹5,000 crore each. Both received Sebi approval in May 2025, according to Prime Database.

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Pranav Haldea, managing director of Prime Database, said some of these companies may choose to refile at a later stage when they feel valuations are more conducive. Companies have a year from the date of regulatory approval to launch their issues. In April, Sebi granted a one-time relaxation to issuers whose observation letters were due to expire between April 1 and September 30, giving them until this month end to launch their IPOs. The relief was aimed at helping IPO-bound companies ride out the risk aversion in equities following the West Asian crisis and the surge in oil prices.

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Sebi also allowed companies to increase or reduce their issue size by up to 50% without filing fresh draft papers, compared with the earlier threshold of 20%.Under the existing framework, Sebi observations are generally valid for 12 months, while certain issues, including those under the confidential pre-filing route, can have a validity of up to 18 months. Since these are one-time extensions granted by Sebi, companies unable to launch their IPOs by September 30 would be expected to refile their draft red herring prospectuses (DRHPs), according to Adeepto Saha, associate partner, Deloitte India. “A fresh filing would nevertheless add several months to the overall execution timeline,” said Saha.

Other sizeable issues include renewable power producer Continuum Green Energy (Rs 3,650 crore, approved in April 2025), New Delhi-based NBFC Hero FinCorp (Rs 3,600 crore, May 2025), hotel ownership and development firm Prestige Hospitality Ventures (Rs 2,700 crore, August 2025) and technology-driven solutions provider Innovatiview India (Rs 2,000 crore, August 2025).

So far this year, 87 IPOs have raised Rs 1.08 lakh crore. That makes 2026 only the fourth year in history in which IPO fundraising has crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark. This excludes the ongoing National Stock Exchange IPO, which aims to raise Rs 22,561 crore.

Mouri Tech, Ravi Infrabuild Projects, Ajay Poly, Jesons Industries, Vinir Engineering, Kent RO Systems, Veeda Clinical Research, Seedworks International, Allchem Lifesciences, SIS Cash Services, Neilsoft, Runwal Enterprises, Prozeal Green Energy, Ardee Engineering and SSF Plastics India are among the other companies that have IPO approvals set to expire by September 30.

“Companies whose approvals expire this September will have to go back to the starting point and initiate work on and refile their DRHPs,” said Nikhil Naredi, partner, capital markets, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.

Refiling a fresh DRHP is typically not the preferred option, as it could entail Rs 3-5 crore in additional costs, fresh Sebi filing fees, updated audited financials and legal due diligence, besides another 60-90 day regulatory review.

For companies still weighing a market debut, the decision is likely to depend on the urgency of fundraising, expectations of selling shareholders and the valuation available in the market.

“Private equity and venture capital-backed companies could face greater pressure where investors are looking for an exit within a defined investment horizon,” Saha said.

Mumbai: Thirteen stocks that make up nearly a third of the Nifty have weighed heavily on the benchmark’s performance over the past five years. The stocks, which account for 33.7% of the index, delivered an annualised return of negative 0.8% between September 2021 and August 2026, according to 360 One Wealth’s study. The Nifty 50 returned 7.1% annually during this period, but excluding these 13 laggards, the return would have been 11%, said the study by Varuk Sikka, executive director of the firm.

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The biggest weights among these stocks are HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank and TCS, which together account for about 27% of the index. IT services companies including Infosys, TCS, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra and Wipro, which together make up 8.5% of the Nifty, were hurt by factors including AI-led pressure on the billable-hour model. HDFC Bank faced margin pressure following its merger, while regulatory changes weighed on HDFC Life. Consumer companies such as Hindustan Unilever and Asian Paints faced pressure from rising input costs and increased competition.
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This drag from a handful of heavyweight stocks also helped active mutual funds outperform the index, as many of them had lower exposure to these laggards. While Nifty 50 index funds returned 8.32% annually over the period, large-cap funds averaged 11.41%, flexi-cap funds 12.23% and multi-cap funds 16.30%, according to 360 One Wealth. Typical active schemes had 15-22% of their portfolios invested in the 13 stocks compared with about 34% for the index, with this underweight alone accounting for roughly 1.5-2 percentage points of their outperformance, the study showed.