The Focus

The largest IPO in Malaysia in 9 years. The largest IPO ever out of India. The largest IPO in the Philippines in 5 years. The largest IPO ever out of Egypt. There has been a rising trend of high-profile emerging markets deals seen so far in 2026 although burgeoning global capital markets mean emerging and frontier markets have contributed a below average 9.1% of global capital raised in 2026YTD. So, what’s emerging in emerging markets?

The Graph

The Breakdown

Whilst emerging markets in 2026 have seen less capital raised so far this year than the record high seen in 2024 there has been strong growth across certain sectors and regions. In the US and Western Europe a lot of the recent ECM oxygen has been sucked up by AI but this hasn’t been as widespread in emerging markets with sectors such as financial services and industrials being more prominent.

Underpinning global supply chains via manufacturing and resource extraction, emerging markets help drive global growth. They are often viewed as the engines for future innovation with relatively young populations offering growth opportunities and connections between emerging markets potentially opening deeper pools of capital and beneficial trade relationships.

Although emerging markets have overarching themes, regional variances and country specifics are highly relevant too.

• India has driven emerging markets ECM in recent years, pulling from a large pool of domestic capital (both institutional and retail) and bolstered by a regulator that has made strides to streamline capital market access for issuers, with a record $22.2B raised in IPO proceeds in 2025.
• Africa has seen a record amount of IPO capital raised in 2026YTD driven by multiple high-profile listings across Nigeria and Egypt. South Africa, often viewed as a regional powerhouse for ECM, has been muted this year. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, improving regional integration and growing domestic investment have helped to bolster African ECM.
• Across the GCC countries, a wave of privatisations occurred between 2023 – 2025 with a record-breaking 133 IPOs over those years, although expected to continue this has been tempered in 2026 due to the Iran War.
• For over four years, Brazil saw no domestic IPOs until May 2026. Volatile interest rates and political cycles sidelined issuers looking to raise capital.
• South East Asia has seen a steady number of IPOs coming to market, on average 43 IPOs annually over the last 5 years. Initiatives such as Indonesia’s Capital Market Reform Plan and Thailand’s Thai Capital Market Attractiveness Initiative are driving a more supportive listing environment, and countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia have benefitted from global supply chain diversification.