Ola Electric to raise $734 million in India's biggest IPO this year

By Dhwani Pandya, Aditya Kalra and Aditi Shah

MUMBAI (Reuters) -Indian e-scooter maker Ola Electric said on Monday it aimed to raise $734 million in the country's biggest IPO this year, a deal set to lure major foreign investors and highlight growing confidence in India's financial markets.

A stock market boom has already led more than 150 Indian companies to raise nearly $5 billion through public listings in the country between January and July, nearly double the figure for the same period last year, LSEG data shows.

The first IPO by an Indian electric vehicle maker will let investors bet on a clean energy push by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, as well as firms from Tata Motors and TVS Motor to Hyundai Motor.

"Our mission is to really make India a global EV hub," Ola's chairman Bhavish Aggarwal told reporters at a press conference in Mumbai, where he posed for photographs sitting on his e-scooters that start retailing at $900.

SoftBank-backed Ola Electric has become the biggest player in a country where adoption of clean vehicles is still low, but rising rapidly. It had 46% of the e-scooter market as of June 30 despite slashing sales goals last year.

"Tesla is for the West and Ola for the rest," has become a catchphrase linked to Aggarwal, who is betting big on cleaner vehicles.

Aggarwal had plans to start selling an electric car in 2024, but Reuters reported they have been suspended to let the company focus on e-scooters and EV battery cells. It also plans a foray into electric bikes.

Aggarwal said Ola had a good product line up in place for e-motorbikes.

Ola's aggressive push into e-scooters has already disrupted the market forcing a pivot by incumbents such as TVS, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto. Its entry into the motorcycle segment, which makes up two-thirds of total two-wheelers sold in the country, will intensify competition.

ATTRACTIVE VALUATION

A term sheet for the IPO, which will run from Aug. 1 to Aug. 6, puts a value of $4 billion on the company, which sold its first scooter in 2021.

That valuation is about 25% lower than Ola's last funding round in September, led by Singapore's investment firm Temasek which valued the EV maker at $5.4 billion.

The lower figure stems from a correction in the valuation of global tech companies as well as Ola's desire to attract participants to the stock offering, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The IPO is set to draw bids from Fidelity, Nomura and Norges Bank at the $4 billion valuation, as well as several Indian mutual funds, sources who asked not to be identified told Reuters.

In the IPO, Ola will issue new shares to raise $657 million while existing investors offload their stake of about $77 million to IPO investors, the term sheet showed.

The loss-making company unveiled the price band of 72 rupees to 76 rupees ($0.86-$0.91) in an advertisement in the Financial Express newspaper, with a discount of 7 rupees a share for some eligible employees.

Aggarwal and investors such as SoftBank and Matrix Partners will sell part of their stakes in the IPO.

Monday's newspaper ad showed 10% of the IPO will be reserved for retail investors, with proceeds going to fund capital expenditure and research and development efforts.

(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya in Mumbai, Aditya Kalra and Aditi Shah in New Delhi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Christina Fincher)