I-bankers to get hefty bonuses as deal activity zooms

Investment bankers from top domestic firms could take home, on an average, 100-150 per cent of annual salary as bonuses — much higher than last year when payouts ranged from 30-40 per cent.

FY24 saw robust equity capital market activity that resulted in a fee collection of over ₹2,000 crore. Total equity fundraising stood at ₹1.86-lakh crore, underpinned by a roaring secondary market. This is 142 per cent higher than FY23, a year in which a series of interest rate hikes and geopolitical tensions marred fundraising. India Inc raised ₹61,915 crore through 76 main board IPOs in 2023-24 — 19 per cent higher than the ₹52,116 crore mobilised by 37 IPOs in 2022-23, according to primedatabase.com. The amount raised through qualified institutional placements stood at ₹78,089 crore, more than seven times the amount raised the year before. Bulk and block deals totalled ₹5.25-lakh crore, which is 55 per cent higher than the previous fiscal.

HEALTHY IPO PIPELINE

“The pot has grown bigger,” said Munish Aggarwal, Managing Director Head – Equity Capital Markets, Equirus. “Equity fundraising activity was buoyant last year, with a sizeable number of block deals apart from IPOs. The deal pipeline remains robust and every organisation knows that they will have to give a decent payout to retain as well as attract talent.”

Another senior banker, on condition of anonymity, said: “The bonuses could range from 100 per cent to 150 per cent of annual salaries depending on performance. The healthy pipeline of IPOs and QIPs will also have a bearing on the payouts.” Banks pocket 2-3 per cent as fees for managing IPOs, and 1.5-2 per cent for handling QIPs, depending on the issue size and the number of bankers.