Temasek India IPO Bets Surge as Manipal, Milky Mist, Shiprocket List

Three listings in one month

Temasek had a very good August in India. In about two weeks, three companies the Singapore state investor backs went public on Indian exchanges and all three opened above their offer prices. Manipal Health Enterprises listed first, then Milky Mist Dairy Food, then Shiprocket. The results ran from a respectable gain at the hospital chain to jumps of 30% and more at the two smaller companies.5483

Taken together, the three debuts show that India can still produce large listing gains when an offer is priced sensibly and the company has a clear growth story, even in a weak secondary market. The rest of 2026 has been harder, though, and that context matters for how much weight the August run deserves.

The scorecard

Manipal Health Enterprises was the largest of the three. It is one of India's biggest private hospital chains. Its shares opened 10.5% above the offer price of 590 rupees on the National Stock Exchange, after an IPO of about $973 million.4 Nikkei Asia reported that the deal issued 80 billion rupees of new shares and was the second-largest IPO of the year at that point.2 After the debut the company was valued at roughly $9 billion. It runs 49 hospitals with more than 13,000 beds, and it plans to spend about ₹40 billion over three to four years adding some 2,400 beds, which would raise capacity by more than 18%.6

That valuation figure is worth a closer look. Before the listing, coverage described Manipal as seeking a $10.3 billion valuation.7 The roughly $9 billion figure after the debut therefore suggests the IPO was priced somewhat below what was first floated. Even so, some analysts said the stock was expensive compared with listed peers and that there was little room left for short-term gains.6 In practice the hospital chain made a solid debut, not a spectacular one.

Milky Mist Dairy Food was the smallest deal by subscription but delivered a much bigger first-day gain. The stock listed at 181.5 rupees, 29.6% above its issue price of 140 rupees, after an IPO of about $163 million.8 The ₹15.53 billion offer was subscribed only 2.17 times, mostly by retail and high-net-worth investors. Before the offer the company raised ₹4.65 billion from anchor investors, including Temasek, the International Finance Corporation and HDFC Mutual Fund.9 Temasek was on both sides of the deal. Its subsidiary Zulia Investments bought in as an anchor, and another subsidiary, Jongsong Investments, had already invested about ₹482 crore in a pre-IPO round that combined ₹357 crore of new shares with ₹125 crore of shares bought from existing holders.10

Shiprocket produced the biggest gain. The e-commerce logistics company listed at 131 rupees against an issue price of 97 rupees, up 35.1%, after an IPO of about $170 million.13 During the session it rose as much as 48.6% to 142 rupees, which valued the company at 100.1 billion rupees (about S$1.33 billion).5 The offer was subscribed 99.4 times overall. Retail investors bid for 46.4 times the shares set aside for them, and institutions bid 122.8 times their allotment.5 Temasek was an existing shareholder and sold none of its stake in the IPO.10

Where the numbers disagree

The reporting is consistent on the main facts but not on every number, and readers should know where the gaps are. Milky Mist's valuation is the clearest example. One widely syndicated version gives the first-day market value as 139.69 billion rupees, or about $1.46 billion, rounded to $1.5 billion in the headline.9 A Singapore-based version gives the same rupee figure as S$1.9 billion, and its automatically generated summary states it as US$1.9 billion.7 The rupee number fixes the matter: the correct dollar figure is about $1.5 billion, and the US$1.9 billion figure confuses Singapore dollars with US dollars.

Accounts of Manipal's gain also differ in tone. Nikkei Asia's headline says the shares "rose"2; another outlet says they "surged".6 The 10.5% opening premium sits between those two descriptions. Shiprocket's quoted figures differ mainly because they were taken at different times: the 35% opening premium1, the 48.6% intraday high5, and a later price of about ₹143 when one wire report was filed.10

Why it matters beyond Temasek

The August cluster is notable because it came during an otherwise poor year for Indian equities. Nikkei Asia linked Manipal's listing to hopes of a recovery in primary markets after a slow first half disrupted by the U.S.-Iran war.4 As of early September, Indian IPOs had raised almost $10 billion in 2026, compared with more than $20 billion in each of the two previous record years.15 Reuters, as cited by ET Retail, counted 26 IPOs launched or announced in under two months from July, close to the 28 recorded across the whole first half.9

Since then, IPO activity and the wider stock market have moved in opposite directions. The Nifty 50 has fallen for eight weeks in a row, its longest losing streak in 25 years, and foreign investors have withdrawn about $27.8 billion from Indian equities this year. Even so, 29 companies were due to list in the second week of October.19 Separate figures put IPO fundraising for January to September at a record $12.5 billion, the highest for that period since records began in 1980, while the Nifty fell about 14%.20

The two sets of headline figures, "almost $10 billion" by early September15 and "$12.5 billion" by the end of September20, are compatible. They suggest September alone was a very large month, and one estimate puts September proceeds at about $4.1 billion across 34 companies.19

The market has cooled since August, however. The average listing premium fell to 15.1% in September from 24.4% in August, and the median premium dropped from 21.3% to 5.9%.20 In other words, Temasek's three companies listed near the peak for first-day gains. A 30% to 35% opening premium was easier to achieve in mid-August than it was by late September.

Temasek's broader India push

Temasek's activity goes well beyond these three deals. The day after Shiprocket's debut, Singapore High Commissioner Simon Wong said publicly that Temasek has been a consistent net buyer of Indian stocks and would be on "an even hotter streak" after the fourth India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable.10 Singapore was India's largest source of foreign direct investment in FY2025-26, accounting for $19.8 billion of inflows.10

Temasek also had a stake in the year's biggest exchange listing. Its subsidiary Aranda Investments was a selling shareholder in the IPO of the National Stock Exchange, which listed on September 24. Aranda was due to keep about 10.12 crore shares, worth around ₹18,064 crore at the ₹1,785 issue price.17 NSE had cut its price range from an earlier ₹2,000–2,100 to ₹1,700–1,785, which meant it would not become India's largest-ever IPO, partly because of doubts that the market could absorb several mega-deals at once.15 The issue was still subscribed 5.71 times, and the institutional portion was subscribed 12.68 times.17

More deals are coming. In September, medical-device maker Romsons announced an investment from Temasek and said it would consider a public listing at an appropriate time. Mint had earlier reported a possible minority stake worth ₹1,500 crore, which would value the company at about $500 million.14 Mapletree, a Temasek unit, is reportedly looking at listing four Indian office parks in a REIT that could raise up to S$600 million at a valuation of about S$2.5 billion, with a mid-to-late 2027 listing in Mumbai as the target.16 Temasek also appears among the backers of Rebel Foods and ShareChat parent Mohalla Tech, both on startup IPO pipeline trackers.12

The caveat: first-day gains are not returns

Some caution is in order. A recent analysis found that about three-quarters of IPO proceeds this year came through offers for sale, meaning the money went to selling shareholders rather than to the companies.20 A SEBI study from 2024 found that 54% of IPO shares allotted to non-anchor investors were sold within a week of listing. Its 2026 study found that anchor investors sold roughly half of their combined holdings within a year.11 Very high subscription levels, like Shiprocket's 99 times, may reflect investors chasing a quick listing gain as much as long-term belief in the business.11

That is why the structure of these three deals matters. Manipal's offer was built around new shares, with the money set aside for hospital beds.26 Milky Mist plans to use its proceeds to repay debt and expand its main plant in Perundurai, Tamil Nadu, and it has secured land in Maharashtra for a possible second site.9 Shiprocket's debt reduction was expected to help profitability.5 Temasek kept its Shiprocket stake10 and added to Milky Mist on the way in.10 Sponsors who keep or add to their holdings at listing are signalling that they expect further value.

The August debuts are a real result for Temasek, and they show that well-priced growth companies can still raise money in a weak Indian market. The bigger test is whether these stocks hold their gains once lock-ups expire and first-day enthusiasm fades, as it has for much of the market since September.20