ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company has appointed a record 18 merchant bankers for its upcoming IPO — the highest for any Indian public issue in recent times — setting a new benchmark in India’s primary market.

While the Rs 10,000-crore issue’s size and brand prestige drew strong interest from merchant bankers, the company also wanted to accommodate as many as possible due to long-standing relationships, say industry insiders. However, this expansion comes at no additional cost: under the issue structure, only four bankers will earn fees, but all 18 get league table credit — a valuable currency in the investment banking world.

The issue

“It pushes their credentials as bankers and helps in business development. That’s why everyone wants to be part of this issue,” said a person familiar with the matter. “Since ICICI has strong relationships with many of these banks and receives support on distribution too, they wanted to accommodate as many as possible,” the person added.

The AMC filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI on July 8. The syndicate includes global names like Citi, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, and top Indian firms such as Axis Capital, Kotak Investment Banking, SBI Capital Markets, JM Financial, and HDFC Bank. ICICI Securities has been appointed exclusively to manage the marketing of the issue.

"One reason of course is the size of the issue. Historically, the larger the IPO, the more bankers are involved. HDB had several, Leela too. But size alone doesn’t explain it as many larger issues have gone through with fewer bankers," said Pranav Haldea, Managing Director, Prime Database Group.

"Issuers may want to appoint larger number of banks to ensure a wider and deeper reach among different investor segments: retail, domestic institutional, foreign institutional, and within foreign different geographies. Merchant bankers are also sometimes appointed on the basis of the overall relationship which the issuer has with the bank. For example, it could be a salary account or a lending facility etc. The left lead is critical from a regulatory standpoint. 3–5 bankers in total can generally handle the core job. Beyond that, it’s often about distribution and relationship," added Haldea.

The IPO is a 100 percent offer-for-sale (OFS) by UK-based promoter Prudential Corporation Holdings Ltd. ICICI Prudential AMC will not receive any proceeds, with the entire sum going to the selling shareholder.

This listing stands out for appointing more merchant bankers than any other IPO in the last two years. Previously, the record was held by HDB Financial Services, which had 12 bankers for its June 2025 IPO, followed by Schloss Bangalore (Leela Hotels) with 11, and JSW Infrastructure and Ola Electric, each with 8. Notably, NTPC Green Energy, which also had a Rs 10,000 crore issue size, appointed only four lead managers.

“There’s also the prestige factor,” said Arun Kejriwal, founder of Kejriwal Research and Investment Services. “Since it’s coming from ICICI, everyone wants to be involved. It’s more about being seen on the deal than the economics,” he added.

According to another IPO expert, IPOs typically follow the ‘left lead’ principle. “The first-named bankers lead the process, while the rest support with investor marketing, documentation, and compliance,” the person said.

Another merchant banker familiar with the issue arrangement said that the top 10-12 bankers are doing the "heavy lifting" with the balance merchant banking firms just "present on the DRHP cover" so that they can be part of a large issue and enter the league tables.

In such multi-bank deals, each banker is assigned a subscription quota and grouped into tiers based on their responsibilities. Tier-1 bankers coordinate allocations and institutional bids, while others focus on different investor segments to ensure broad distribution and participation.

“It’s a large issue, and it should attract good interest and perform well,” Kejriwal said.

ICICI Prudential AMC, India’s largest active asset manager by assets under management, will be the first mutual fund IPO from the ICICI Group and the fifth AMC listing overall. As of March 31, 2025, the company managed a quarterly average AUM of Rs 9.43 lakh crore, holding a 13.3% market share.