Up to 30 pc of top unlisted companies have potential to list, says Hurun India founder

Mumbai, Feb 24 (PTI) Up to 30 per cent of India's top-100 unlisted companies have the right business models and growth potential, making them candidates for listing on stock exchanges, a top official from Hurun India said on Tuesday.

None of these companies identified in the 'JM Financial' - Hurun India Unlisted Gems 2026' have formally announced IPO plans yet.

"I think some of them could (list). I think around 25-30 per cent has a potential to get listed, but they don't have IPO plans announced ready," Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher at Hurun India, told PTI on the sidelines of the report launch.

He added that IPO-ready reflects which businesses are structurally aligned with public market participation at this stage in terms of scale, shareholder mix, and growth positioning. The others are equally strong enterprises, but public markets are not the optimal platform for every ownership model.

He emphasised that the absence of formal IPO announcements does not reflect a lack of readiness.

"The reason we put this (report) out is because these are all good companies and if they want to get listed now, they will easily, unless and unless there are information that we are not aware of, they are qualified to get listed," he said.

The report identifies a broad and diversified pipeline of IPO-ready companies across sectors. Consumer goods lead the list in terms of representation, followed by construction and engineering, and financial services, pointing to a mix of consumption-driven businesses and asset-heavy infrastructure and finance players preparing for eventual public market access.

The top 10 unlisted companies by revenue include large retail, digital commerce, manufacturing, insurance and electric mobility firms, underlining the scale at which many of these enterprises are already operating.

Notably, 63 of the top 100 companies feature in the Hurun India Rich List 2025, while 36 are part of the Hurun India 500 (2024), and 18 appear in Hurun India's Top 200 Self-made Entrepreneurs of the Millennia 2025 list.

According to Junaid, such cross-list representation strengthens their governance credentials, scale and overall preparedness for public markets.

Reliance Retail leads the inaugural JM Financial Hurun India Unlisted Gems 2026 with a revenue of Rs 2.7 lakh crore, followed by Flipkart at Rs 83,000 crore and Malabar Gold and Diamonds at Rs 66,000 crore, report said.

The 100 companies on the list clocked a combined revenue of Rs 8.9 lakh crore in 2025, up from Rs 6.7 lakh crore in 2023, a 15.2 per cent CAGR in just two years.

In terms of revenue, Tata Electronics (3,173 per cent CAGR) and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility (904 per cent) are the two fastest-growing companies on the list, with JSW One Platforms (522 per cent) rounding off the top three.

Amongst the JM Financial Hurun India Unlisted Gems 2026, Reliance Retail posted the highest EBITDA (pre-tax earnings) at Rs 22,573 crore, followed by Adani Properties (Rs 11,332 crore) and Zerodha Broking (Rs 5,664 crore). The 'Unlisted Gems' delivered a combined operating profit of Rs 1.03 lakh crore. PTI MSU AA HVA