Vanguard, one of the lead backers behind Indian ride-hailing giant Ola, has marked down the value of its shares in the company by nearly 35%. The same was highlighted by the investment firm in its semi-annual report to investors. As per those filings, Vanguard has marked down the value of its shares to $33.8 million, from the $51.7 million purchase price.
This mark down comes at a time when the global economy has seen several weak spots in its post-COVID recovery timeline. Tech firms have been specially hit, both private and publicly traded. Additionally, India’s investment heavy, mostly-loss making unicorns and other heavily funded startups, are bearing a brunt of this decrement in investor cash.
Vanguard, while marking down its Ola shares, has seen appreciation in its investments in Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) and L&T holdings. Its holdings in India’s second largest private sector bank, HDFC, saw a mild depreciation as well.
Based on Vanguard’s own numbers, Ola’s valuation now stands at roughly $4.8Bn, nearly 50% of the $7.3Bn it commanded back in a 2021 funding round. The mark down is internal, based on Vanguard’s own analysis, and may not necessarily be reflective of what other investors think. It will also not impact Ola’s valuation on-paper, unless it raises a private funding round at a decreased valuation.
With this markdown, Ola has joined a rather not-so-pretty list of Indian unicorns, who have seen their valuations being slashed by their investors, in their respective annual/semi-annual reports. Invesco recently slashed Swiggy’s valuation by nearly half, to $5.5Bn, while Blackrock had done the same with Byju’s by slashing the valuation to $11.5Bn, half of what it was valued in its last fundraise.
