India's Insurance Comparison Platform Policybazaar Readies for November IPO
PB Fintech, which owns online platforms Policybazaar and Paisabazaar, has set a price of ₹940-980 ($12.55-13.09) a share for its coming initial public offering (IPO).
A report from regional media outlet Mint says the firm has announced its IPO will open on Nov. 1 and close two days later on Nov. 3, and PB Fintech will list on Nov. 15.
The firm is planning to raise around ₹5,709.72 crore from the IPO, including a fresh issue of ₹3,750 and an offer for sale of ₹1959.72, with proceeds from the issue going towards bolstering visibility and awareness of the aforementioned brands.
About ₹1,500 crore will go towards that purpose, and PB Fintech plans to spend another ₹600 crore on a strategic investment funding and acquisitions.
Yet more will be spent on expanding the company’s presence globally.
“We plan to continue investing in our brands on mediums such as television, while also expanding our marketing presence to capture shifts in consumers’ media consumption habits, such as in social media, digital media and embedded advertisements", the company said in its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), per the report.
PB Fintech lists Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Global Markets India, ICICI Securities, Kotak Mahindra Capital, HDFC Bank Ltd, IIFL Securities and Jefferies India as bookrunning lead managers on the project.
In other IPO news, Flipkart was announced to be going public last April. That, per a PYMNTS report, might happen by the fourth quarter of this year.
Read more: Flipkart Looks At Possible Traditional US IPO
Walmart owns the company, and Flipkart, based in India, has also toyed with the idea of going public with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) recently. While that would’ve made the process faster, the company was reportedly not looking into that option at the time.
As of last April, India had several companies getting ready for IPOs, with PYMNTS listing the aforementioned Policybazaar along with Zomato, the food delivery service. There were at least 10 offerings in the queue.