India's Mamaearth parent files for IPO - draft prospectus
29/12/2022 07:45
BENGALURU, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Parent of Indian personal
care products startup Mamaearth, Honasa Consumer Ltd, on
Thursday filed for an initial public offering (IPO), according
to draft papers submitted to the market regulator.
The Sequoia- and Sofina-backed company's IPO will comprise
of a fresh issue of shares worth 4 billion rupees ($48.30
million) and an offer for sale of 46.8 million shares.
Mamaearth was co-founded as a direct-to-consumer brand by
Varun Alagh, a former Hindustan Unilever HLL.NS executive, and
his wife Ghazal.
With the brand endorsed by popular Bollywood celebrities,
the duo has cashed in on India's growing e-commerce adoption by
offering its products on platforms such as Amazon AMZN.O and
Walmart's WMT.N Flipkart.
India's beauty and personal care industry is expected to
grow to $27.5 billion by 2025 from $17.8 billion in 2020,
according to estimates by Indian financial services firm
Avendus.
The number of online shoppers for beauty products is also
projected to rise, climbing to 135 million from 25 million
during that period, it added.
Reuters had reported in June that Mamaearth was in talks to
raise at least $300 million for the IPO scheduled for 2023.
The company was last valued at $1.2 billion in January 2022
when it raised $52 million from investors, including U.S.-based
Sequoia and Belgium's Sofina.
Investors including Sofina, Stellaris Venture Partners,
Fireside Ventures, and Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty are among
those selling their stake in Honasa via the offer for sale.
Honasa said it would use about 1.86 billion rupees from the
IPO for advertising expenses.
The startup reported a consolidated restated profit of 157.2
million rupees in the year ended March 31, 2022, its financial
statement showed.
Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citigroup Global Markets India, JM
Financial Ltd, and J.P. Morgan India Private Ltd are the
book-running lead managers for the issue.
($1 = 82.8150 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane
Venkatraman)
((Nandan.Mandayam@thomsonreuters.com; Mobile: +91 9591011727;))