Indian skincare firm Mamaearth rise 4% in debut trade (updated)

Honasa Consumer

07/11/2023 04:59

(Updates share movement, adds background)
       BENGALURU, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Shares of Honasa Consumer
 HONA.NS , the parent of Indian skincare firm Mamaearth, were up
as much as 4.2% in their trading debut on Tuesday, valuing the
startup at 108.62 billion rupees ($1.30 billion).
        The stock, which climbed to a high of 337.60 rupees in
early trade after opening at 330 rupees, briefly fell below its
initial public offer (IPO) price of 324 rupees.
  
    The benchmark Nifty 50 index  .NSEI  was down 0.2%.
        Companies focused on personal care and cosmetics have
seen a jump in demand for their products after the pandemic as
awareness on self-care grew. 
  
        "Consumers have become a lot more conscious about the
quality of chemicals that they end up actually using and so
they're looking for cleaner and organic products. That is going
to be a larger long-term trend ... this product preference is
where Mamaearth is directly positioning themselves," said
Siddarth Pai, founding partner at 3one4 Capital, which tracks
the Indian consumer sector.
  
        Last week, the company's IPO received robust interest
from investors who oversubscribed its shares on offer by 7.6
times, bidding for more than 220 million shares, exchange data
showed.
    It had put the plan on hold in March blaming weak market
conditions.
        Mamaearth, founded by former Hindustan Unilever  HLL.NS 
executive Varun Alagh and his wife Ghazal in 2016, revisited its
IPO plan last month, with a reduced offer size.
    The Indian beauty and personal care market is estimated to
expand to $28 billion by 2025 from $17.8 billion in 2020,
according to KKR-backed financial services firm Avendus.
   
($1 = 83.2525 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini
Goswami)
 ((ramavenkat.raman@thomsonreuters.com; https://twitter.com/ramavenkat0607;
 +91 8095218099;))