Ola Electric to launch IPO next week, valuation seen at around $4.4 billion

SoftBank-backed Ola Electric's IPO will open for retail subscription on August 2, the Indian electric scooter maker said on Saturday, a stock offering that according to two sources will value the company between $4.2 billion to $4.4 billion.

The issue, which will open for institutional investors a day earlier on Thursday, will close for retail subscriptions on Aug. 6, the final IPO prospectus filing showed. Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal will offload 37.9 million shares in the IPO, around 20 per cent lower than estimated in the draft IPO prospectus.

Ola's expected valuation is about 18.5 per cent to 22 per cent lower than in its last funding round in September, which was led by Singapore's investment firm Temasek and valued the country's largest e-scooter maker at $5.4 billion.

"Some marquee investors are being offered the IPO at the lower end of the $4.2 billion-$4.4 billion valuation," said one of the sources with direct knowledge of IPO planning.

Ola is planning the IPO at a lower valuation to ensure higher participation from investors bidding for the IPO shares, the two sources said.

Ola Electric's IPO, a first for an Indian EV maker, is also one of India's biggest in a year where the country's equities markets have scaled multiple record highs and also overtaken Hong Kong to become the world's fourth-largest bourse.

Ola Electric's fresh share issue size of Rs 5,500 crore ($657 million) for the IPO was left unchanged.