Indian company Ola Electric plans to list by the end of 2023 and has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs and domestic bank Kotak to lead the share sale, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Ola Electric, an electric scooter manufacturer, is backed by investors including SoftBank Group and Tiger Global Management and was valued at $5 billion (approximately 41,375 crore) at its last fundraiser in 2022.
According to the source, other investment banks are likely to join as they move closer to the deal.
Ola Electric, founded by Bhavish Aggarwal, who also founded ride-hailing company Ola and competes with Uber, is trying to capture India’s burgeoning but promising electric vehicle market.
The electric scooter company has not yet finalized how much it plans to raise from the initial public offering (IPO) or what valuation it will target, but it will target a valuation in excess of $5 billion, the source said.
If it sells 10 percent in the IPO — the legal minimum listing price — it could be India’s largest IPO this year given the tepid market conditions.
Filing the draft documents, marketing them to investors and listing them on the stock market by the end of the year would be “difficult”, the source said, but adding that Chief Executive Aggarwal insisted on the timetable.
A spokesman for Ola declined to comment. Kotak and Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
