Indian companies returning home to capitalize on investor growth
The number of companies with a market cap >$1 billion is at an all-time high. Along with this, the allocation of Indian households’ investments in the stock market has also increased substantially. There are now 10 crore unique investors, compared to 3 crore in 2020. Thanks to the bull market and the ease of going public, there’s a ‘ghar-wapsi’ of Indian companies incorporated outside.
To add to this, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) formally opened the doors of ‘reverse flipping’ or coming home to India yesterday.
Three years ago, I shared the problem of Indian companies building for India but incorporating outside the country. Now, things are the other way around. How the tables turn! What we need now are more Indian businesses, located in India, building products and services for the global market.
By the way, here’s a relevant tidbit from the recent report by Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank: between 2008 and 2021, close to 30% of unicorns founded in Europe relocated their headquarters abroad, with the vast majority to the US.