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Awards / Treasury & Capital Markets
Sustainable Finance Awards 2025: South Asia at full tilt
Region ramps up efforts to harness market opportunities with India leading the way
The Asset   21 Jan 2025

Amid global economic uncertainties and rising geopolitical tensions, South Asia is boldly pursuing its growth story. The region’s GDP growth remained above 6% in 2024, led by India 7% and Bangladesh 5%, according to estimates by the Asian Development Bank.

India, the region’s largest economy, continues to hog the limelight, owing largely to its burgeoning stock market led by a burst of initial public offerings.  Proceeds from the IPO market last year reached US$20.4 billion with over 330 issuances, up 1.8x from the IPO boom in 2023, according to data from LSEG.

However, IPO subscriptions started to disappoint in late 2024, along with the stock market paring its gains since the third quarter. Still, the two major stock market benchmarks – the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex and the National Stock Exchange’s Nifty 50 – delivered 8% to 9% return at year’s end, although that’s a slowdown from the double-digit growth in 2023.

While the stock market expansion has slowed, the bond market has regained favour, particularly from foreign investors, after J.P. Morgan included India’s government bonds in its widely tracked Government Bond Index – Emerging Markets. Net foreign inflows in the country’s debt market surpassed 1.1 trillion rupees ( US$12.9 billion ), up more than 60% from 2023, according to data from the National Securities Depository. A notable surge in offshore and high-yield bonds further raised the outlook for the Indian bond market.

India also ramped up the issuance of G3 bonds, particularly in the high-yield and ESG-related segments. Its bond market doubled in deal value to US$8,997.25 million in 25 deals, compared to only seven issuances in 2023, according to data from LSEG.

The country’s private equity ( PE ) market, meanwhile, has recovered from the lacklustre sentiment in 2023, when both the deal value and volume sank to their lowest levels since 2020. Led by information technology, healthcare and consumer technologies, PE investments exceeded US$31 billion in the first half of 2024, according to the data from Ernst & Young.

Excitement over the PE markets slightly cooled in the second half, given the lack of sizable deals valued at over US$1 billion. Still, PE investment in the first 11 months of 2024 hit US$49.6 billion over 1,126 deals – a 5% increase in value compared to the same period in the previous year.

In the mergers and acquisitions ( M&A ) space, a total of 618 deals amounting to US$29.6 billion were recorded in the third quarter, the biggest number of quarterly deals since 2022, according to a Grant Thornton report. That brought India’s M&A performance in the first nine months to US$30.6 billion across 477 deals, up more than 80% in value and 30% in volume from a year ago.

In the near term, technology, media and telecommunications ( TMT ), industrials, and healthcare will account for the biggest M&A deals in India, according to consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates.

Elsewhere in the region, there was a flurry of financing activities, particularly in the sustainability space. Bhutan ramped up rupee funding as part of its strategy to strengthen links with India’s robust economy. Bangladesh and Pakistan saw the debut of sustainability and green debt issuances from corporates and financial institutions, reflecting the two countries’ ambition to beef up their sustainability credentials.

These were some of the trends our board of editors observed in the South Asia region during the review period for The Asset Triple A Sustainable Finance Awards 2025.

For the complete list of the best banks and advisers in South Asia, please click here

For the complete list of the best deals in South Asia, please click here

For more information about the awards gala scheduled for March 19, 2025 please contact us at celebrate@theasset.com.