Lovable Lingerie has appointed Sequoia Capital’s VT Bharadwaj as its nominee director, according to a company statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Bharadwaj is a managing director with Sequoia Capital, focusing on consumer, retail, healthcare and energy sectors, and has led investments in Genesis Colors, Vasan, Celon Labs and Ind-Barath. He has also worked closely with Paras and Lal Pathlabs and supported public market investments in Cognizant, Havells and InfoTech. He is on the boards of Vasan, Celon Labs and Lal Pathlabs.
Prior to joining Sequoia Capital, Bharadwaj was with McKinsey & Company where he spent six years. He holds an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and has done BS in Engineering from BITS Pilani. Sequoia Capital India holds over 10 per cent stake in the company (across SCI Growth Investments II and Ironwood Investment Holdings), which was listed earlier this year.
Along with Bharadwaj, the lingerie maker has also roped in Anantharaman Mahadevan as an independent director of the company.
The share price of Lovable closed at Rs 482.15 on the BSE on Friday, down 2.47 per cent. The company’s share price had earlier reached Rs 636.5 (more than 3x its issue price), making it one of the best-performing IPOs in 2011.
In March this year, Lovable Lingerie raised Rs 80 crore from the public issue at the upper end of the price band of Rs 195-Rs 205 each, besides the sum of Rs 14 crore raised from a group of five anchor investors (all of them domestic mutual funds). In a pre-IPO investment in the Mumbai-based firm, Sequoia Capital had infused Rs 20 crore and later picked up shares from the market, thus increasing its holding in the company.
Founded more than two decades ago, Lovable plans to invest Rs 23 crore to set up a manufacturing facility in Bangalore. The company also plans to invest Rs 25 crore in its joint venture, Lovable Lifestyles Pvt Ltd, which will manufacture, market, distribute and directly retail in the super premium lingerie segment. Lovable will hold 90 per cent stake in the JV with London’s Lifestyle Galleries. It will also spend additional amount on brand building and setting up exclusive brand outlets.
