Lenskart starts taking orders for 72.8 billion rupees India IPO

Lenskart Solutions began taking public orders for an initial public offering (IPO) that could raise as much as 72.8 billion rupees (S$1.1 billion) as India’s market for new listings heats up.

The eyewear retailer, founded by Indian “Shark Tank” judge Peyush Bansal, plans to offer its shares at 382 rupees to 402 rupees each until Tuesday (Oct 28), with the stock scheduled to start trading on Nov 10. The pricing values Lenskart at as much as 700 billion rupees.

Lenskart joins the flood of companies going public in one of the world’s hottest IPO markets, which is increasingly being fuelled by money pumped in from domestic mutual funds, insurers and millions of retail investors. It comes as another major deal – Billionbrains Garage Ventures, the parent of online investment platform Groww, prepares to launch its IPO on Tuesday in an offering that may fetch as much as 66.3 billion.

The IPO values Lenskart at 10 times last fiscal year’s enterprise value to sales, prompting SBI Securities to say the valuation “seems stretched”.

“Future expansion plans and growth prospects provide cushion to the valuations,” according to Nirmal Bang Securities, which advised clients to buy the stock with a long-term view.

Lenskart will raise 21.5 billion rupees from new shares, while existing investors are offering as many as 127.6 million shares. On Thursday, the company said that it raised 32.7 billion rupees from 147 anchor investors that included funds managed by JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.

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Founded in 2010, Lenskart counts Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, KKR, and TPG among its backers.

With 2025 proceeds at nearly US$16 billion, India is the world’s fourth-largest IPO market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That follows last year’s record tally of US$21 billion. BLOOMBERG