boAt plans to float Rs 3,500-crore IPO
Through an IPO, boAt Lifestyle, a consumer electronics company, plans to generate around Rs 3,000-3,500 crore ($400-500 million). According to various people familiar with the situation, the management has met with investment bankers, and the mandate will be signed in a few weeks.
The company is expected to be worth between Rs 11,000 crore and Rs 1.5 billion. The amount of primary and secondary stock sold has yet to be determined.
Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm based in the United States, is the largest shareholder in boAt, with a stake of about 30%. Qualcomm Ventures and Fireside Ventures are among the other investors, with a combined ownership of less than 5%.
According to one of the sources, the DRHP will be filed in a few months, and the IPO will occur in early 2022. BoAt, situated in Mumbai, distributes headphones, earphones, wearables, speakers, and related accessories like chargers and cables. It was founded by Sameer Mehta and Aman Gupta in 2016.
Early this year, boAt, which is run by Imagine Marketing Pvt Ltd, raised approximately Rs 750 crore ($100 million) from Warburg Pincus, a US-based investment firm. Qualcomm Ventures made a Rs 50 crore investment in April at a Rs 2,200 crore value. BAC Acquisitions, which was co-founded by Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal, gave boAt Rs 20 crore in venture debt in 2019.
In FY20, the startup made almost Rs 700 crore in profit.
boAt is the world's fifth-largest wearables brand. BoAt competes in India with companies like OnePlus, Samsung, Realme, JBL, Bose, and Palred (Ptron).
In April, boAt was announced as the official audio partner of six Indian Premier League (IPL) teams. KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, and Mayank Agarwal are among boAt's brand ambassadors.
The Covid-19's second wave had little impact on overall wearable shipments in 2Q21, which fell by 1.3 percent sequentially.
Early-quarter shipments were skewed due to partial lockdowns, weekend curfews, and disrupted supply lines.
However, unlike last year, the market recovered quickly in June 2021, as suppliers loaded the channels to meet pent-up consumer demand.
Nykaa, MobiKwik, Tracxn, Delhivery, and Paytm are among the Indian firms preparing to approach the capital markets.
