Japanese tech investor SoftBank and several other private equity-style investors will sell part of their stakes in FirstCry as part of the baby products retailer’s initial public offering.
FirstCry parent Brainbees Solutions Ltd filed its draft documents for an IPO on Thursday, joining a raft of Indian companies to go public this year as the stock market soars to record highs.
FirstCry will issue fresh shares worth Rs 1,816 crore ($218 million) in the IPO. The IPO also involves an offer for sale of 54.4 million shares by existing shareholders.
SoftBank intends to sell 20.32 million shares, or a sixth of its stake. The Japanese firm is FirstCry's biggest shareholder with a 25.55% stake, or about 124.1 million shares, in the company. SoftBank pared its stake in the company earlier this year.
US private equity firm TPG will sell about 3.9 million shares via the IPO while secondaries investor NewQuest, in which TPG owns a majority stake, will offload a little more than 3 million shares. TPG holds a 4.95% stake in FirstCry while NewQuest owns 3.83%.
PremjiInvest, the private investment arm of Wipro’s Azim Premji, plans to sell 8.6 million shares. PremjiInvest owns a 10.36% stake in FirstCry.
Indian conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra, Schroders Capital Private Equity and four other investors are also selling FirstCry shares.
FirstCry, which was valued at $3 billion in April, said it will use the money raised from the fresh issue of shares to expand its network of stores in India and Saudi Arabia. It also plans to set up warehouses and make acquisitions to grow its business.
Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Kotak Mahindra Capital, JM Financial and Avendus are the investment bankers for the IPO.
