Shadowfax secures Rs 856 crore from anchor investors ahead of IPO

New-age logistics firm Shadowfax Technologies has raised around Rs 850 crore from anchor investors ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), which opens for subscription on January 20, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Domestic institutional investors are believed to have taken up a large portion of the anchor book, with strong participation from mutual funds and insurance companies, the sources said.

Among the domestic investors, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, Nippon India Mutual Fund, and Motilal Oswal are understood to have participated in the anchor round. Insurance companies such as ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and Kotak Life Insurance were also part of the anchor allocation. Global investors like Norges Bank Investment Management and HSBC were among the foreign participants.


All anchor investors are believed to have subscribed at the upper end of the price band of Rs 124 per equity share.

According to the company's red herring prospectus (RHP), 75% of the issue has been allocated to qualified institutional buyers (QIB), of which 60% was allocated to anchor investors.

Shadowfax has trimmed its IPO size to Rs 1,907 crore from Rs 2,000 crore earlier.

The company will be raising Rs 1,000 crore through a fresh issue, while Rs 907 crore is the offer for sale (OFS) component for existing investors such as Flipkart, Eight Roads, TPG NewQuest, Nokia Growth Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, and Mirae Asset.

At the upper end of the band, Shadowfax was valued at Rs 7,169 crore on a post-money basis, lower than the Rs 8,500-9,000 crore valuation it had earlier targeted.

In an interview with ET last week, Abhishek Bansal, cofounder and CEO of Shadowfax, had said the firm is now targeting direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands and smaller retailers as part of its strategy to diversify and reduce dependence on a handful of large clients that comprise a chunk of its revenues.

The company reported that its operating revenues rose 68% in the first half of the current fiscal year to Rs 1,805.6 crore, supported by growth across ecommerce and quick commerce. Shadowfax reported profits of Rs 21 crore during this period.