Key Takeaways from IPOs listed in 2020 - IPO Stack
Welcome to IPO Stack’s complete tracker for all primary market issues listed in India in 2020. This page documents the full lifecycle of every public issue from that extraordinary year — from the offer price during the subscription window, through the opening price on listing day, all the way to where each stock trades today.
Whether you are a long-term investor checking on a 2020 holding, a researcher studying how India’s primary market behaved through one of the most turbulent macro years in recent memory, or a new investor learning how IPO outcomes unfold over time, this page is your definitive reference for the 2020 cohort.
2020 was unlike any other year in the history of the Indian primary market — or any market in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the Indian economy to a near-standstill from March through June, the stock market crashed 40% in a matter of weeks, and IPO activity was almost completely frozen in the first half of the year. SBI Cards, which was listed on 16 March 2020 — the exact day the Indian market hit its COVID-era low — became one of the most dramatic listing stories of the decade.
Yet from July onward, as liquidity flooded global markets, India’s primary market roared back. The second half of 2020 was one of the most frenetic IPO periods the country had seen, with subscription multiples reaching extraordinary levels and listing-day pops generating enormous retail excitement.
The 2020 class of sixteen issues spans an exceptionally diverse range of businesses — pharmaceuticals, food products, restaurants, shipbuilding, financial services, asset management, technology, chemicals, real estate, and banking. It produced one of the greatest IPO investments in Indian naval and defence history alongside some of the sharpest post-listing collapses driven by COVID-era overpricing.
Two important notes for readers:
Yes Bank FPO: Yes Bank’s ₹15,000 crore issue in July 2020 was a Follow-on Public Offer (FPO), not a traditional IPO. Yes Bank was already a listed company that required emergency capital infusion following its rescue by a State Bank of India-led consortium earlier that year. It is included on this page for completeness as a major 2020 public market capital raise, but its context is fundamentally different from the other listings.
Mindspace Business Parks: This is a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), not a conventional equity IPO. Total return for REIT unitholders should include regular distributions received since listing in addition to unit price appreciation
How to Read this:
Issue Price is the per-share price at which the company offered its shares to the public during the IPO.
Listing Price is the stock exchange opening price on the day the company was officially listed. Comparing this with the Issue Price tells you whether the IPO had a strong debut (listing above issue price) or a weak one (listing below issue price).
CMP (Current Market Price) is the latest available trading price of the stock. This tells you where the stock price is today, years after the listing.
Chg Since Listing is arguably the most important column on this page. It shows the percentage change between the Listing Price and the CMP — meaning how much an investor who bought at the listing and held until today has gained or lost. This is the core metric IPO Stack tracks across every year.
Subscribed tells you how many times the issue was oversubscribed during the bidding period. A higher subscription multiple means stronger investor demand at the time of the IPO. A lower subscription means low demand.
52-Week High / Low gives you context on recent price action — whether a stock is currently trading near its annual peak or its annual bottom. This allows investors to make up their minds to invest or not.
CHG 1D points at the change that occurred in 1 day. It is the comparision on the price of stock on CMP (current market price) vs pClose (previous day price at market close) %CHG indicates the percentage of change that occurred in 1 day.
Key Takeaways from IPO 2020 by IPOStack:
Mazagon Dock is one of the greatest IPO investments in Indian primary market history. A gain of 906.05% from the listing price — 10× in roughly four years — places Mazagon Dock alongside Polycab (2019, +1,207%) and DMart (2017, +527%) in the elite category of IPOs on this tracker. What connects all three is straightforward: a business with genuine competitive advantages, priced fairly at listing, held patiently through subsequent volatility. In Mazagon’s case, the additional tailwind of India’s accelerating naval modernisation programme has been extraordinary.
The two most subscribed IPOs of 2020 — Mrs. Bectors (198×) and Happiest Minds (151×) — have produced opposite outcomes. Mrs. Bectors is down 61.40% from listing. Happiest Minds is down just 2.46% from listing. Both were hypnotically oversubscribed, both listed at massive premiums, but the underlying business quality and defensibility have diverged sharply. This single comparison — within the same year, at similar subscription levels — captures why subscription multiples alone tell you almost nothing about long-term returns.
The COVID-19 context defines the entire 2020 class. SBI Cards listed at the exact moment of maximum pandemic fear and has still managed a positive return. Chemcon and Rossari listed at the peak of the specialty chemicals and post-COVID optimism wave and are deeply underwater from their listing prices. The year shows how market timing and macro sentiment at the moment of listing create an artificial reference point — high listing prices during periods of euphoria bake in return hurdles that businesses often cannot clear.
CAMS is the most instructive valuation warning in the 2020 class. It is arguably the highest quality business on this page — a quasi-monopoly registrar for India’s mutual fund industry — yet it is down 58.56% from its listing price. CAMS was simply priced too expensively at listing. Even a genuinely excellent business with genuine moats can be a poor investment if purchased at an excessive multiple. The gap between business quality and investment return is determined by the price paid — and CAMS in 2020 is this tracker’s clearest illustration of that principle.
The two lightly subscribed, modestly sized IPOs — UTI AMC (2.31×) and Equitas Small Finance Bank (1.95×) — have both delivered solid positive returns. UTI AMC is up 93.20% from a discount listing; Equitas Small Finance Bank is up 86.50% from a discount listing. The pattern that has appeared in every single year of this tracker from 2013 through 2020 continues without exception: stocks that list quietly, at a discount, with modest subscription, frequently outperform the year’s most celebrated issues over the long run.
2020 produced five IPOs that were subscribed over 100 times. Of those five — Mrs. Bectors (198×), Happiest Minds (151×), Burger King (157×), Mazagon Dock (157×), and Chemcon (149×) — one is an extraordinary winner (Mazagon Dock), one is nearly flat (Happiest Minds), and three are significantly in the red (Mrs. Bectors −61%, Chemcon −78%, Burger King −44%). The one winner in this group — Mazagon Dock — succeeded because of business fundamentals, not because of subscription level. The subscription multiple was irrelevant to the outcome.
16 issues tracked — with two important editorial flags upfront: Yes Bank was an FPO (not a traditional IPO) and Mindspace is a REIT (total return includes distributions). Both flagged clearly in the introduction, data table, and their own dedicated sections.
Top performers since listing:
- 🟢 Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders — +906.05% (10× from listing — one of India’s greatest IPO investments)
- 🟢 UTI AMC — +93.20% (2.31× subscribed, listed at a discount — classic quiet outperformer)
- 🟢 Equitas Small Finance Bank — +86.50% (1.95× subscribed, also listed at a discount)
- 🟢 Yes Bank FPO — +62.52% (distressed bank context, not a true IPO)
- 🟢 Mindspace REIT — +49.01% (unit price only; total return higher with distributions)
Worst performers since listing:
- 🔴 Chemcon Speciality Chemicals — −78.43% (subscribed 149×, listed at +115% premium — completely unwound)
- 🔴 Mrs. Bectors Food — −61.40% (most subscribed of 2020 at 198× — worst long-term performer)
- 🔴 CAMS — −58.56% (excellent business, wrong price — the year’s most instructive valuation lesson)
- 🔴 Burger King India — −43.94% (subscribed 157×, back near its issue price)
- 🔴 Route Mobile — −33.50%
About IPOStack:
IPOStack is a blog dedicated to tracking the complete lifecycle of Indian IPOs — from the DRHP filing stage, through the subscription period and listing day, all the way to the current market price years later. Every year has its own dedicated tracker page so you can study IPO performance step by step.
Use these pages to build a historical understanding of how the Indian primary market has evolved, which sectors have rewarded investors, and how listing-day price action compares to long-term value creation.
Disclaimer: All data on this page is for informational and educational purposes only. IPO Stack does not provide investment advice. Please do your own due diligence before making any investment decisions. Market prices are subject to change.