With the stock market rallying smartly and driving up stock prices to new highs, promoters have collectively pared stakes in their companies for an amount of Rs 10 lakh crore in the six years starting 2020. In 2025 alone, promoters have offloaded Rs 2.57 lakh crore worth of shares, the highest level in the past six years. Sales have been taking place via a combination of routes, namely through IPOs and the secondary markets, partly via bulk deals.
With Sensex more than doubling in value to the current level of 84,696 from 41,254 on December 31, 2019, the bulk of the selling or about 70% or around 7 lakh crore has taken place in the secondary markets. Data from Prime Database reveals that sales of promoter stakes via offers for sale (OFS) in initial public offerings have been a little over Rs 2 lakh crore.
What did Pranav Haldea say?
As Pranav Haldea, managing director, Prime Database observed, promoter selling in itself should not be taken as an adverse move. “However, if promoter selling is accompanied with deteriorating fundamentals of the company, then yes, that is something which is a red flag and which needs to be looked at in greater detail,” Haldea told FE.
IPOs of 2025
In 2025, the largest promoter stake sales through IPOs were seen in LG Electronics, ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company, and HDB Financial Services. In the secondary markets, promoter selling was seen in Bharti Airtel, IndiGo, Vishal Mega Mart, and Wipro.
