Companies can soon list at GIFT City without an IPO
GANDHINAGAR, GUJARAT, 30 SEPTEMBER: Companies will soon be able to list their shares at GIFT City without going through an IPO. The regulator plans to bring out a “direct listing” framework in the next few months.
“There is no need to come in through a traditional IPO. You are automatically onboarded as a listed company, and your shares become available for trading,” said Pradeep Ramakrishnan, Executive Director at the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), in his keynote address at the Morningstar Investment Conference India 2026.
IFSCA has already consulted the market on the proposal, he said. The reform is meant to get equity listings going at the international financial services centre in Gujarat. Its bond market has taken off, but equity is still at an early stage.
Close to $85 billion has been raised through bonds listed at GIFT IFSC. About $18 billion of that came through green, social and other sustainable bonds. The centre has also become the main route for Indian companies borrowing abroad. “Almost 75% of India’s ECBs happen through GIFT City. That’s how popular it has become,” Ramakrishnan said, referring to external commercial borrowings.
Retail investors are following. Almost 3 million Indians have signed up under GIFT City’s revamped global access programme, he said. The programme lets them buy shares, bonds and ETFs in about 50 countries through brokers based there. They can invest up to $250,000 a year, the limit under the RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme.
Mutual funds offer another route. Indian fund houses face an industry-wide cap of $7 billion on overseas investment, but the cap does not apply to their GIFT City arms. About 10 to 12 fund houses have set up there, letting Indians invest in global markets “with ticket sizes as low as $500,” Ramakrishnan said.
The money moves both ways. “Money goes out to about 90 countries, and it also comes in from about as many. This is the hallmark of an international finance jurisdiction,” he said.
The regulator also wants GIFT City to help set gold prices rather than just follow them. “India is one of the largest importers of gold, and it is important that we have a say in its pricing,” Ramakrishnan said. About 110 tonnes of gold and 1,200 tonnes of silver have been imported through GIFT IFSC so far. IFSCA wants more of these deals to move from over-the-counter trades onto the exchange.
On green money, IFSCA last week released a framework for blended finance. It lets philanthropic capital and grants be pooled with money from regular investors, subject to FCRA rules. Banks at GIFT City must direct 5% of their incremental lending to sustainable finance, a rule Ramakrishnan said no other regulator in the world has. They have lent about $8 billion under it.
Six years after IFSCA was set up, GIFT IFSC has about 1,400 registered entities across 25 to 30 business lines, as of June 2026. These include 235 fund management entities running more than 400 funds. Close to 500 aircraft assets and 42 ships have been leased from the centre, so Indian airlines no longer have to go to leasing hubs such as Dublin. Four foreign universities have also opened campuses there.
Ramakrishnan linked the centre’s growth to the wider India story. He pointed to the country’s young population, its strong growth and its goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047. “This is a magnet for investors and issuers alike,” Ramakrishnan said.
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