The Indian IPO market has consistently made headlines in the last few months because of recent debuts – like Ola Electric, Swiggy, etc. – and ambitious plans from various companies gearing up for listings such as Flipkart. And now, the IPO plan of South Korean consumer electronics giant LG Electronics’ India unit is grabbing attention, as the company is reportedly eyeing to raise its valuation to $15 billion.
Before this, LG Electronics India was looking at a valuation of around $13 billion and planning for its listing in the first half of the next year – 2025. But a recent report by Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, suggests that the company is planning to increase the valuation as it’s getting some positive initial interest from potential investors.
The Seoul-based company is reportedly in talks with analysts and investors for the IPO. Meanwhile, during the preliminary discussions, the company received a positive market response and increased investor interest. And these signals may have led LG to revise its valuation target to $15 billion for its Indian unit.
LG Electronics filed a Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with Indian regulators – before this month – revealing plans to offer up to 101.82 million shares. However, the company has no intention of issuing any new shares. Through this IPO, the Indian arm is looking to raise between $1 billion to $1.5 billion. Some well-known financial institutions, including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Axis Captial, Bank of America, and Citigroup Inc., will be managing this IPO.
Interestingly, in contrast, LG is aiming to increase its India IPO valuation and at the same time, its share prices have fallen by 13% in Seoul which dropped the market value of the company to $10 billion.
India’s IPO scene is growing rapidly, roughly $18 billion in funding has been raised through IPOs so far this year. Recently, the IPO of One MobiKwik Systems Ltd., popularly known as MobiKwik, oversubscribed by a total of 119.38 times. Even the India-focused fintech subsidiary of Prosus – PayU also seems to be gearing up to launch an IPO. The company may file its DRHP sometime early next year and likely raise at least $500 million.
