NEW DELHI: After much speculation, electric two-wheeler company Ola Electric on Friday took the plunge and filed preliminary papers with capital markets regulator Sebi to raise funds through an initial public offering (IPO).
This will be the first IPO by an automaker in 20 years and the first pure electric vehicle (EV) company that is aiming to list on the domestic bourses. The proposed IPO is a fresh issue of equity shares up to Rs 5,500 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 9.52 crore equity shares, according to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP).
The company’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal is set to offload up to 4.73 crore shares in the OFS. Other prominent stakeholders in the company such as SoftBank and Tiger Global will also be divesting their stake in the share sale. According to sources, the country’s largest electric two-wheeler player will aim to have market-capitalization of as high as $8 billion. The start-up, which raised about $1 billion over the years, was last valued at $5.4 billion in October 2023.
As per the DHRP, the proceeds from the fresh issue will be used for capital expenditure to be incurred by the subsidiary, OCT for the Ola Gigafactory project, payment of debt by subsidiary OET, investment into research and product development, expenditure for organic growth initiatives and general corporate purposes.
The firm’s revenue grew exponentially in FY23 to Rs 2,630.9 crore, as compared with just Rs 373.4 crore in the previous fiscal. It reported a loss of Rs 1,472 crore in FY23 as against a loss of Rs 784.1 crore in FY22. Ola Electric, which competes with TVS Motor and Ather Energy, is the market leader in the e-2W segment, with a share of about 35% in November 2023.
Bhavish Aggarwal set to offload up to 4.73 cr shares
Company’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal is set to offload up to 4.73 crore shares in the OFS. Other prominent stakeholders such as SoftBank and Tiger Global will also divest their stake. As per sources, the electric two-wheeler player will aim to have market-cap of as high as $8 billion