Ola Electric is planning a stock market listing by the end of this year, and has engaged investment banks Goldman Sachs and Kotak Mahindra to manage the share sale, according to a report by news agency Reuters. More investment banks are likely to be added closer to the deal.
Backed by investors such as SoftBank Group Corp and Tiger Global Management, Ola Electric was valued at $5 billion in its last fundraise in 2022. Founded by Bhavish Aggarwal, who also established ride-hailing firm Ola and competes with Uber, Ola Electric is trying to capture the country’s electric vehicle market.
The electric scooter company has not finalised how much it plans to raise in the initial public offering (IPO), but it will seek a valuation higher than $5 billion. If it sells 10 per cent in the IPO – the minimum legally required to list – at that price, it could be India’s biggest IPO this year amid tepid market conditions.
Filing its draft documents, marketing to investors and listing by the end of the year will be “difficult,” according to Reuters, but the company’s Chief Executive Aggarwal was insistent on the timeline.
Ola Electric witnessed a three-fold increase in sales volumes, reaching 730,000 units in the fiscal year 2022-2023 (FY23), according to an electric mobility report released in April. Ola’s market share also went up to 30 percent in the March quarter and for the full year, too, it was leading with a market share of 22 percent, followed by Okinawa, Ampere, Ather and Hero.
The company is planning to pump-in money for its massive expansion in the new financial year. The two-wheeler maker plans to add 50 more experience centres to its current network of 400 experience centres. The company claims that around 90 per cent of its customers reside within a 20 km radius of any of its experience centre.
However, the EV startup has been afflicted by several controversies since last year, including e-scooter fires, service problems, product quality issues, and misappropriation of the government’s FAME-II subsidy policy. Yet, the company has continued to launched new stores and announced product offerings.
Aggarwal recently teased the Ola S1 Air electric scooter online, which was launched in India last year. The electric scooter is the company’s most affordable e-scooter yet. It is offered in three different variants and comes with a starting price of ₹84,999 for the base model. The mid and top variants on the other hand are priced at ₹99,999 and ₹1,09,000, respectively.
Earlier this year, Ola Electric Mobility signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tamil Nadu government at Chennai Secretariat today. The company aims to establish a 20 GW battery manufacturing facility in the state to produce its four-wheeler electric vehicles.
Know your inner investor
Do you have the nerves of steel or do you get insomniac over your investments? Let’s define your investment approach.
Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
