Ola said to pick Kotak Mahindra Bank, Citigroup for $1 billion IPO

Mumbai: Ola has selected banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., to manage its initial public offering (IPO) that could raise about $1 billion, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The ride-hailing company, backed by SoftBank Group Corp. and Tiger Global Management, has also picked Morgan Stanley for the listing, said the people, who asked not to be named as the information is private. The Bangalore-based startup could seek a valuation of more than $8 billion in the IPO and could file its draft red herring prospectus by October.

Details of Ola IPO—including size and timeline—could still change as deliberations are ongoing, the people said. More banks could be added later, they said. A representative for Citi declined to comment, while representatives for Kotak Mahindra and Morgan Stanley didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.


Pre-IPO Funding
According to a July 9 ET report, Warburg Pincus and Singapore government’s investment fund Temasek Holdings bought shares worth $500 million from existing investors of Ola in a secondary deal. The transaction received approval of India’s antitrust regulator — just two weeks ago.

Separately, Ola has also expanded its employee stock options pool to Rs 3,000 crore and given employees an additional Rs 400 crore in stocks in the run up to the IPO.

Startup IPOs in 2021
Talks of an Ola IPO come at a time when a strong pipeline of Indian startups are readying to tap the public market in the coming months. Fintech startup Paytm, e-commerce firm Flipkart, and edtech startup Byju’s are also preparing for their first-time share sales.