LG Electronics shortchanges itself in India IPO

LG Electronics

09/10/2025 13:00

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions expressed are her own. Refiles to add topic codes.

By Ujjaini  Dutta

BENGALURU, Oct 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Rich valuations are a defining feature of Indian equities. So, it’s eye-catching when a global company listing its subsidiary in the South Asian market shuns the lofty multiples on offer. That’s the decision South Korea’s LG Electronics 066570.KS took this week.

Few global brands are as embedded in Indian homes as the maker of refrigerators, microwaves, televisions and air conditioners. It is the country’s biggest white-goods retailer by sales and LG Electronics India LGEL.NS is more profitable than its rivals. Instead of leveraging that advantage, the South Korean group is accepting a steep valuation discount on the $1.3 billion offering of its shares in the unit.

The $9 billion market capitalisation it's set to secure almost matches its parent’s but values the subsidiary at about 35 times its trailing earnings. That is close to the multiple of distant rival Whirlpool India WHIR.NS, which is half as profitable, and compares to 65 times Havells India HVEL.NS and 57 times for Voltas. It's so cheap that the offer was fully subscribed on the first day of bidding; BlackRock and the sovereign funds of Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Norway led the charge.

True, competition in India is heating up. Over the last three years, LG Electronics India's market share has slipped just about two percentage points in its leading product segments as global brands from Haier to Samsung Electronics 005930.KS muscle in. Yet LG is growing in the emerging market in other ways. It’s opening a third factory, plans to export Made-in-India goods to Europe, and generates oodles of cash to fund those ambitions. New Delhi’s effort to sign more free trade agreements also will support its goals.

     The South Korean group may have wanted to secure a strong secondary market performance but Hyundai Motor India HYUN.NS did that without short-changing existing owners: the stock is up nearly 30% on the offer price since its October debut. Investors in LG Electronics may ultimately feel the company gave away too much value.

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CONTEXT NEWS

LG Electronics' initial public offering of its Indian business was fully subscribed on the first day of bidding on October 7.

The offering, comprised entirely of existing shares, is worth up to 116 billion rupees ($1.3 billion). At the upper end of the price band, the company will have an IPO market capitalisation of $8.73 billion.

LG Electronics is more profitable in India than all its major peers https://www.reuters.com/graphics/BRV-BRV/dwvklwlddpm/chart.png

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on DUTTA/ujjaini.dutta@thomsonreuters.com))