Firstcry's parent firm Brainbees Solutions files papers to go public

Firstcry IPO: Brainbees Solutions will sell shares worth Rs 1,816 crore and existing investors, including SoftBank, will sell up to 54.4 million shares

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Firstcry IPO: Brainbees Solutions, the parent company of online retailer Firstcry, has filed for an initial public offer (IPO), as reported by news agency Reuters. Brainbees Solutions will sell shares worth Rs 1,816 crore ($218 million) and existing investors, including tech-to-tractors firm Mahindra And Mahindra and US private equity fund TPG, will sell up to 54.4 million shares, the IPO papers showed.

The company was valued at $3 billion in April.

FirstCry's biggest shareholder, SoftBank, holds a 25.5 per cent stake in the firm. It had sold shares worth Rs 630 crore ($310 million) in FirstCry earlier this month. The Japanese conglomerate had invested $400 million in FirstCry at an enterprise valuation of $900 million. The extent of shares SoftBank will sell was not immediately clear.

FirstCry, which saw its losses widen six-fold in fiscal 2022-2023 due to rising costs, said it would use funds from the IPO for expanding stores in India and Saudi Arabia, and to clear its leases for existing Indian stores.

The company has a network of 936 stores in India, but has not disclosed its store count in Saudi Arabia.

Companies are rushing to tap investor demand as India's benchmark indices continue rallying to record highs. This has fuelled a rise in IPOs filed in late 2023 in an otherwise dull year for fundraising, and trend could extend into 2024, bankers have said.

Companies have raised funds worth Rs 44,793 crore rupees in main board IPOs so far this year, down 24 per cent from a year ago, as per NSE data.

Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, and Kotak Mahindra Capital are among the investment bankers for the share sale.

(With agency inputs)