MakeMyTrip Could Pave Way for More Indian IPOs

For years, Wall Street hasn’t been a welcoming place for Indian IPOs. This year alone, at least 14 Chinese companies have had U.S. IPOs, according to Bloomberg News, but since 1999, only four Indian companies have managed to list in the U.S. From July 2006, when WNS Holdings had an IPO, four years went by without any Indian listings on Nasdaq or the NYSE. A pretty sorry record, and probably one reason that India lags far behind China in the development of homegrown Web companies. (Quick – can you name India’s answer to Baidu? I didn’t think so.)

On Thursday, though, Indian online travel company MakeMyTrip finally ended the IPO drought in pretty spectacular fashion. MakeMyTrip’s stock price jumped 89 percent in the first day of trading. That’s the biggest first-day jump for any U.S. stock since 2007. To be sure, the deal was modest – the company sold just $70 million worth of stock, selling 5 million shares at $14 apiece. Still, the successful launch could make investors keen on looking for more Indian listings soon – and help India’s would-be powers in search, social networking and e-commerce start to catch up to their counterparts in China.

Read the original story at BusinessWeek Eye on Asia Blog