From Rentomojo to Manipal Payments: 6 IPOs Closing Soon - Which Ones Should Investors Consider?

With six IPOs closing on September 11, investors have no shortage of choices. But these are not six companies competing in the same industry or offering the same investment proposition.

Rentomojo is a bet on India's organised rental economy. Asset Reconstruction Co. offers exposure to the business of recovering stressed loans. Manipal Payment & Identity Solutions operates behind the scenes of India's payment-card and secure-document ecosystem. Steamhouse India supplies industrial steam through dedicated pipelines. LCC Projects is an infrastructure EPC player focused largely on water and irrigation, while Karamtara Engineering is positioned around solar, transmission and renewable-energy equipment.

That makes a simple question more important than subscription numbers or grey-market sentiment: what exactly are you buying when you apply?

Here is how the six businesses stack up and the trade-offs investors should understand.

1. Rentomojo: A consumer-growth story, but one that needs capital

Rentomojo is perhaps the easiest of the six businesses to understand. It allows consumers to rent furniture and appliances instead of buying them, charging a monthly subscription while taking care of delivery, installation, maintenance and relocation.

But the interesting part of the business is not simply the rental model. It is the reuse of the same physical assets across multiple customers. Rentomojo refurbishes returned products through its warehouse network and puts them back into circulation, allowing an asset to generate revenue multiple times. The company has also built a sizeable position in India's organised rental market, with a 42%-47% share of subscription revenue.

That gives Rentomojo something many consumer businesses struggle to build: a combination of recurring revenue and asset reuse.

The financial trajectory also makes the story interesting. Revenue rose from ₹192.70 crore in FY24 to ₹386.99 crore in FY26, while profit increased sharply to ₹104.3 crore. However, FY26 profit included a ₹36.64 crore deferred-tax credit, so investors should not treat the headline profit jump as entirely operational. Though, even after adjusting for that, the company remained profitable.

The trade-off

The same asset-heavy model that creates Rentomojo's competitive advantage also creates its biggest weakness.

The company has to purchase and maintain a large rental inventory before it earns the subscription income from those assets. Borrowings stood at ₹258.33 crore as of June 30, 2026, and credit-impaired receivables were ₹21.89 crore in FY26. Its top 10 cities also generated 89.51% of revenue.

So this is not simply a bet on India's rental market. It is a bet that Rentomojo can scale that market while maintaining asset utilisation, controlling defaults and funding its inventory efficiently.

That distinction matters when judging what the IPO valuation is asking investors to believe.

2. Asset Reconstruction Company: A unique business, but cash recovery matters more than accounting profit

Asset Reconstruction Company (India), or Arcil, is arguably the most unusual business among the six.

In simple words, it buys or manages stressed loans that banks and financial institutions no longer want on their books, and then tries to recover value from them. It had an AUM of ₹20,149.99 crore in FY26 and has relationships with banks, NBFCs and housing finance companies.

The attraction here is less about conventional loan growth and more about India's evolving stressed-credit ecosystem. Arcil also has the advantage of being an early participant in the ARC industry and has built a significant operating network around loan recovery.

But there is an important distinction investors should make.

The trade-off

Arcil's profit is not the same thing as cash recovered from bad loans.

Its consolidated revenue rose to ₹721.69 crore in FY26 and PAT reached ₹407.84 crore, but operating cash flow was only ₹193.83 crore. At the same time, cash spent acquiring bad-loan portfolios rose to ₹985.18 crore. The company's financial performance can therefore be influenced significantly by the timing of recoveries and fair-value changes.

There is another important consideration: this is a 100% offer-for-sale IPO. Arcil itself receives no IPO proceeds.

That means investors are buying into an interesting business, but they are not giving the company fresh capital to accelerate growth.

The other concern is the age of its portfolio. About 34.94% of the portfolio consisted of assets older than eight years as of March 2026, while ₹71.96 crore of write-offs were recorded in FY26.

The key question for Arcil is therefore not simply how large its AUM becomes, but how effectively that AUM is converted into actual recoveries and sustainable returns.

3. Manipal Payment & Identity Solutions: A niche leader with a genuine competitive position

Manipal Payment & Identity Solutions operates in a business most consumers rarely think about.

It manufactures payment cards and other secure products such as cheque books, identity documents, holograms and smart tags, while also providing card personalisation and related services. The company produced 86.20 million banking cards in FY26 and had an estimated 31.7% share of India's credit and debit card manufacturing market.

What makes the business interesting is that this is not merely a plastic-card manufacturing story.

Security certifications, long-standing relationships with banks and the specialised infrastructure required to handle sensitive customer data create meaningful barriers to entry. More than 61% of its customers have been with the company for over five years, and its top 10 customers have an average relationship of 12.46 years.

The company is also pushing into higher-value areas such as metal cards. Its metal-card revenue grew from ₹15.99 crore in FY24 to ₹82.94 crore in FY26, and it holds a patent in this segment.

The trade-off

The obvious attraction is market position plus profitability.

But there is a concentration issue. Payment cards accounted for 57.25% of FY26 operating revenue, while the top 10 customers contributed 58.67%. Nearly half of its raw-material purchases were imported.

And there is a bigger structural question: how much of the future growth in payments will continue to require physical cards?

India's rapid shift towards digital payments is not necessarily an immediate threat to cards, but it does mean Manipal needs to keep moving toward higher-value products and adjacent applications rather than relying indefinitely on traditional card volumes.

At the IPO valuation, investors are therefore paying for market leadership, strong margins and specialised capabilities. The question is whether those advantages remain strong enough to justify the premium over its listed peer.

4. Steamhouse India: An unusual utility model with a real entry barrier

Steamhouse is probably the company that requires the most explanation.

Steamhouse supplies steam to factories through pipelines. Steam is used by industries such as chemicals, textiles and pharmaceuticals for processes like heating, drying and manufacturing.

Instead of each factory buying and running its own boiler, Steamhouse operates large central boilers and supplies steam directly to several factories. This saves customers the cost, space and effort of setting up and maintaining their own boilers.

Steamhouse is essentially outsourcing a factory's steam-generation infrastructure, much like a factory outsources electricity rather than running its own power plant.

The model also creates an entry barrier because once Steamhouse's pipelines are connected to factories, competing suppliers may find it difficult and expensive to build another network in the same industrial area. Its repeat customers contributed 90.72% of FY26 operating revenue.

The company is also operating in an industry with a potentially large runway as industrial activity expands and companies look for more efficient ways to manage utilities and emissions.

The trade-off

The problem is that the quality of Steamhouse's revenue mix matters enormously.

Coal trading contributed ₹132.33 crore in FY26, or 26.92% of revenue. This helped increase the top line but is a lower-margin activity, contributing to a decline in EBITDA margin from 23.45% in FY24 to 16.99% in FY26.

The company is also leveraged, with a net debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57x in FY26, while 100% of its industrial-gas revenue came from Gujarat. Several major customer agreements are also due for renewal in FY27.

The IPO plans to use ₹180 crore to reduce borrowings and another ₹75.95 crore for brownfield expansion.

So the Steamhouse thesis is quite specific:

Can the company use its difficult-to-replicate pipeline network to capture more industrial demand, while reducing debt and shifting the revenue mix toward its higher-quality core steam business?

If yes, the model becomes more compelling. If not, its apparently strong growth could prove less valuable than it first appears.

5. LCC Projects: Strong scale and order visibility, but cash conversion is the issue

LCC Projects is an EPC company focused overwhelmingly on water supply and irrigation infrastructure. It works largely with government customers and had an order book of ₹7,953.18 crore at FY26-end, more than twice its FY26 operating revenue.

That is the obvious attraction.

LCC has also grown revenue from ₹2,438.91 crore in FY24 to ₹3,600.25 crore in FY26, while PAT rose to ₹286.44 crore. Its ROE of 32.24% and ROCE of 27.13% indicate that it has generated strong returns despite operating in a project-based business.

But infrastructure companies should not be judged purely by their order books.

The trade-off

An order book becomes valuable only when projects are executed, billed and eventually converted into cash.

That is where LCC deserves closer scrutiny.

Its trade receivables increased to ₹455.82 crore in FY26, while unbilled revenue reached ₹534.83 crore. The working-capital cycle stretched from 31 days in FY24 to 67 days in FY26.

There is also significant concentration: Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh together accounted for 76.22% of FY26 revenue, while the top 10 customers contributed 72.30%.

So LCC offers scale, a large order book and strong return ratios, but investors are also accepting government-payment risk, geographic concentration and working-capital intensity.

That is the real debate around this IPO: does its superior scale and growth justify paying a valuation premium despite the weaker cash-conversion characteristics of the business?

6. Karamtara Engineering: A renewable-energy play that comes with a manufacturing discount

Karamtara gives investors exposure to one of the strongest structural themes among these six IPOs: India's and the world's expansion of renewable-energy and power-transmission infrastructure.

It manufactures solar mounting structures, tracker components, lattice towers, wind towers and related steel products. The company has 13 manufacturing facilities and an installed capacity of 889,200 MTPA. Revenue grew from ₹2,425.15 crore in FY24 to ₹4,311.98 crore in FY26, while PAT increased to ₹228.75 crore.

Its integrated manufacturing model is a genuine advantage. It performs several stages internally, including steel processing and galvanising, while serving customers across more than 50 countries.

But there is a fascinating contradiction in the story.

The trade-off

The industry opportunity is enormous, but Karamtara is still fundamentally a steel-intensive manufacturing business.

Its FY26 EBITDA margin was only 11.55%, substantially below several of the listed peers. Its capacity utilisation also fell to 59.05% in FY26 despite substantial capacity expansion.

The company is also highly dependent on solar, which contributed 78.99% of FY26 operating revenue. Its top 10 customers accounted for 48.63%, while borrowings stood at ₹1,030.13 crore at FY26-end.

This creates an important valuation question.

At the IPO price of ₹254, the company is valued at about 35.73x FY26 earnings, significantly above the average P/E of the listed peer set.

So investors are not merely buying today's earnings. They are paying for the expectation that Karamtara's expanded manufacturing capacity, renewable-energy exposure and international expansion will translate into significantly stronger earnings in the future.

That makes Karamtara a classic growth-versus-valuation trade-off.

Which IPOs Stand Out?

After looking at the six businesses, their competitive positions, industry opportunities, valuations and key risks, the IPOs do not look equally attractive.

Rentomojo stands out as one of the more interesting businesses in this set. Its rental-and-subscription model operates in a relatively new and potentially expanding consumer category, while the company has already built meaningful scale and a strong market position. The key trade-off is that growth requires significant investment in rental assets, making asset utilisation, borrowing and cash generation important factors to watch.

Manipal Payment & Identity Solutions also makes a strong case for consideration. It has an established position in a specialised market, long-standing institutional relationships and strong profitability. The key question is how much of this competitive advantage is already reflected in its valuation and how well the company can adapt as the payments ecosystem evolves.

LCC Projects comes next as a scale-and-growth story. Its large order book, strong revenue growth and high return ratios are positives, but the business carries higher working-capital, customer-concentration and leverage risks. The opportunity is attractive, but cash conversion remains an important part of the investment case.

Karamtara Engineering offers a strong industry opportunity through renewable-energy and power-transmission spending, but investors are paying for future growth while accepting relatively lower margins, debt and execution risks. Its investment case therefore depends more heavily on successful capacity utilisation and earnings growth.

Steamhouse India is an interesting niche business, but comes with a higher set of trade-offs. Its dedicated pipeline network and repeat customer base provide a meaningful competitive advantage, but debt, customer concentration and the lower-margin coal-trading business make the investment case more dependent on successful expansion and deleveraging.

Arcil is perhaps the most specialised proposition of the six. Its position in the stressed-asset market and the absence of a directly comparable listed Indian peer make it unique, but investors need to be comfortable with the inherently lumpy recovery cycle, ageing loan portfolios and the fact that the IPO is entirely an offer for sale, with no fresh capital going into the business.

Our view

For investors looking to shortlist rather than apply indiscriminately, Rentomojo appears to offer the most compelling combination of a differentiated business model, a large growth opportunity and an established market position. Manipal Payment and LCC Projects also stand out, although for very different reasons. Karamtara Engineering offers a strong industry tailwind but requires greater confidence in future growth and execution. Steamhouse and Arcil are more specialised opportunities where the business-specific risks and trade-offs deserve greater weight.

For investors looking to shortlist these IPOs, the focus should be on three things: the quality and competitive strength of the business, the size and durability of its growth opportunity, and whether the valuation leaves enough room for the risks involved. That framework points to a clearer shortlist rather than treating all six IPOs alike.

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