LG Electronics picks banks for $1.5 billion listing of Indian unit

By Baiju Kalesh, Pei Li and Julia Fioretti

South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc. has picked banks for a potential initial public offering of its Indian business that could raise as much as $1.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

LG has tapped banks including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley as arrangers for an IPO that may take place as early as next year, the people said. LG may seek to raise $1 billion to $1.5 billion from the share sale, which could give LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd. a valuation of about $13 billion, the people said.

Deliberations are ongoing, and details including the size of the offering and timing could still change, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public.

The company may file a prospectus with India’s stock market regulator as early as next month, the people said. It may add more banks, including local ones at a later stage, they added.

Representatives for LG, Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan declined to comment, while a representative for Morgan Stanley didn’t respond to requests seeking comment outside of regular business hours.

India has turned into a hotspot for deals as global investors seek to tap into the country’s growth potential. Hyundai Motor Co. is planning to sell shares in its local Indian unit this year in what could be one of the biggest-ever listings in the South Asian country, Bloomberg News has reported.

The IPO of LG’s Indian unit is one of the options the South Korean company is weighing as it seeks to hit a target of $75 billion in electronics revenue by 2030 and revitalize its consumer electronics business, Chief Executive Officer William Cho said in a Bloomberg Television interview in August.