Valued at ₹6,146 crore, Ola Electric to launch largest IPO of year

The largest initial public offering (IPO) of the year, valued at ₹6,146 crore for electric scooter company Ola Electric, is scheduled to open on August 2. Since the mid-2003 IPO of Maruti Suzuki (then known as Maruti Udyog), this will be the first IPO by an automobile manufacturer.

Starting on August 2 and ending on August 6, the IPO bidding will take place at a price range of ₹72-76 per share. The firm's estimated valuation at the upper end of the pricing band is $4 billion, which is less than the $7-8 billion valuation it was aiming for a few months ago.

The estimate is even less than the $5.4 billion valuation the firm had in September 2023 during its most recent fundraising round.

Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder and chairman of Ola Electric, said, "Our goal was to set an attractive and aggressive price so that investors can profit."

The leading manufacturer of electric two-wheelers in India, Ola Electric, is raising ₹5,500 crore of the total funds through a fresh share issuance in the IPO. The balance will be an offer for sale by existing shareholders, including global investment behemoths SoftBank and Temasek.

"The firm is ready to face the kind of market scrutiny that public companies usually have to endure. We have primed ourselves in terms of governance and processes, and we want to engage with the public markets and make sure we are satisfying their expectations of governance and exceeding that," Aggarwal said.

Promoters will own 37–38% of the business following the listing, which is anticipated to occur in the second week of August.