(Bloomberg) -- Indian food-delivery platform Swiggy Ltd. filed documents for an initial public offering in a share sale that is expected to be one of the nation’s biggest this year.
Swiggy plans to sell 37.5 billion rupees ($448 million) of new shares, while its shareholders including funds affiliated to Naspers Ltd. and Norwest Venture Partners will sell as many as 185.3 million shares, according to its updated draft red herring prospectus. SoftBank Group Corp. is among the key backers of the firm.
Founded in 2014, Swiggy partners with more than 150,000 restaurants across India to help deliver food in the world’s most populous nation, according to its website. It competes with companies including Zomato Ltd., e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc.’s India unit and conglomerate Tata Group’s BigBasket.
“Demand for Swiggy will be based on its valuation,” said Karan Taurani, an analyst at Elara Securities (India) Pvt. “If the shares are priced at a fair discount versus peer Zomato’s valuation multiples, they will surely see good demand. But if they price shares at par with Zomato, the response could be muted.”
READ: SoftBank-Backed Swiggy Said to Eye India IPO Filing This Week
Swiggy’s plan follows NTPC Green Energy Ltd.’s $1.2 billion filing last week for an initial share sale and underscores the demand for bigger deals in one of the global bright spots for listings. About $9 billion has been raised via IPOs in the South Asian nation this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Swiggy is seeking to raise funds for investment in its unit Scootsy and expand its quick commerce business. It will also use funds for investment in technology and cloud infrastructure, according to the document.
India is the world’s busiest IPO market, with more than 100 companies from the country going public this quarter, though most of them raised less than $50 million, data show. The US saw 62 IPOs for the same period. Bajaj Housing Finance raised $781 million this month, becoming the biggest IPO in 2024.
Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. Ltd., Citigroup Global Markets India Pvt., Jefferies India Pvt., Avendus Capital Pvt. J.P. Morgan India Pvt, BofA Securities India and ICICI Securities Ltd are managing the share sale.
--With assistance from Dave Sebastian.
(Updates with analyst comment in fourth paragraph)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.