Ola In Talks With Investment Bankers for $2 Billion IPO

With the IPO season ready for digital plays, big boys like Ola cannot be too far behind. It is reported that Ola is in advanced discussions with Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, JPM and Kotak Mahindra Capital to lead manage its proposed IPO. The final list of BRLMs will be finalized ahead of the DRHP filing. Ola is expected to file for an IPO in the range of $1.5-2.0 billion around October this year.

Ola IPO Initial Details

An issue size of nearly Rs.15,000 crore would put its IPO on par with Paytm which is also planning to tap the IPO market in the current fiscal year. With the IPOs of Zomato and CarTrade getting a good response, a slew of digital plays like PolicyBazaar, MobiKwik, Paytm and Nykaa are preparing for IPOs. All these IPOs are expected to happen during the current fiscal.

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Ola is a cab hailing service which was launched in 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal on the lines of Uber in the global markets. Since 2010, Ola has raised nearly $4 billion and the proposed IPO is likely to look for valuations of $8-9 billion. During the pandemic, Ola had to let go many of its staff as services were shut. However, now its cab hailing is operating normally.

In July this year, Ola had raised $500 million from Temasek and Warburg Pincus. Ola counts some formidable names like Softbank, Tiger Global and Steadview among early investors. While the dates for the IPO are not yet known, the filing of DRHP is expected in October. That means, the actual IPO could happen either by December this year or in the early part of next year.

The phenomenal success of the Zomato IPO has given confidence that loss-making digital plays have an institutional and retail appetite in India. However, Ola could consider a simultaneous listing in India and abroad.

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