FirstCry launches $3B IPO with no promoters; SoftBank cuts its stake to 20%

FirstCry will launch its public listing without any promoters, while its selling shareholders together will dilute around 11% of their total share capital in the offer for sale (OFS), except for Schroders Capital.

SoftBank, through SVF Frog, will sell 2.03 crore equity shares in the OFS, cutting its stake to about 20% from 25% earlier. Mahindra & Mahindra will participate in the OFS with 10% of its total shareholding in the company by selling 28.06 lakh equity shares, FirstCry executives said at the company’s IPO press meet. 

The company added that the majority of its ESOPs are already a part of the paid-up share capital as it is managed through the ESOP trust.  

Public offering

Brainbees Solution, the parent company of FirstCry, has set the price band of its IPO in the range of Rs 440 to Rs 465 per equity share.

The nearly $3-billion IPO consists of a fresh issue of Rs 1,666 crore and OFS of 543 lakh equity shares by its existing shareholders. Founder and CEO Supam Maheshwari is not selling any stake. 

The bidding state for anchor investors will start on August 5 and the offer will open on August 6.

FirstCry clocked a revenue of Rs 6480.9 crore with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 4.2% in FY24. It logged a pre-tax loss of around Rs 350 crore in FY24.

It has 9.1 million annual unique transacting customers, and its gross merchandise value for India grew 18.8% to Rs 7582.7 crore in FY24. 

The company, which sells baby and mother care products, gets 77% of its revenue from its domestic operations. International business (online channels), which continues to be a loss-making entity on an EBITDA basis, accounts for 13% of revenue, and GlobalBees, its house of brands, brings in 10% of total revenue.