India’s Ola Electric plans to submit regulatory documents for an IPO of up to $700 million (approximately Rs. 5,815 crore) by the end of October, three people familiar with the matter said. The electric scooter maker is rapidly advancing the listing process. Backed by investors including Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and Japan’s SoftBank, Ola Electric was valued at $5.4 billion (approximately Rs. 44,852 crore) in its latest funding round.
In an email to bankers and lawyers on Sunday, a top Ola Electric executive asked the IPO’s external advisers – including the investment banking arm of India’s Kotak and ICICI, as well as foreign banks including Bank of America and Goldman Sachs – to give ” Maximum support.” Sources said the “priority” was to meet the five-week deadline.
Ola Electric and Kotak did not respond to requests for comment, while the other three banks declined to comment. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the communications were internal.
Ola’s IPO project, internally codenamed “Project Himalaya,” comes with a memo to bankers and lawyers not to plan any “long vacations to ensure availability,” sources said.
Indian companies preparing for initial public offerings typically don’t instruct senior bankers and lawyers not to take vacations, they said.
Once the IPO documents are submitted, they will be scrutinized by India’s market regulator, who can also send inquiries, suggesting any possible listing is still months away.
Ola Electric is targeting an IPO tour in early January or February, a source said.
The company, the leader in the electric scooter market in India with 30% market share, was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and has seen a surge in popularity as India promotes the use of electric scooters and scooters.
He has said his affordable electric scooters, priced starting at $1,080 (about Rs 89,700), are for the masses, saying in an interview this year that “Tesla is for the West, Ola is for other countries.”
However, Ola Electric is still losing money. According to Reuters, the company’s operating loss for the fiscal year ended March 2023 was US$136 million (approximately Rs. 1,129 crore) on revenue of US$335 million (approximately Rs. 2,782 crore).
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