FirstCry: Ahead of IPO, its parent company raises Rs 1886 crore from...

Online e-commerce platform FirstCry's parent Brainbees Solutions Ltd on Monday said it has collected Rs 1,886 crore from anchor investors a day before the opening of its initial share sale. The Government of Singapore, Nomura Funds, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Fidelity Funds, Goldman Sachs Funds, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius, SBI Mutual Fund (MF), ICICI Prudential MF, HDFC MF, Kotak MF and SBI Life Insurance Company are among the anchor investors, according to a circular upload on BSE's website.

According to the circular, Brainbees Solutions has allotted 4.05 crore equity shares to 71 funds at Rs 465 apiece, which is also the upper end of the price band. This takes the transaction size to Rs 1,886 crore.
The IPO, with a price band of Rs 440-465 a share, will open for public subscription on August 6 and close on August 8.

The public issue of Pune-based Brainbees Solutions consists of a fresh issue of equity shares valued at Rs 1,666 crore and an OFS (offer for sale) component of up to 5.44 crore shares worth Rs 2,528 crore by existing shareholders. This takes the total issue size to Rs 4,194 crore. Under the OFS, SVF Frog, a Cayman Islands-registered entity of Softbank, will sell 2.03 crore equity shares of Brainbees Solutions Ltd, and automaker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) will offload 28.06 lakh shares of the company.

Currently, Softbank holds a 25.55 per cent stake in Brainbees Solutions, and M&M owns a 10.98 per cent stake in the multi-brand retailing platform. Apart from Softbank and M&M, other selling shares in the OFS are PI Opportunities Fund, TPG, NewQuest Asia Investments, Apricot Investments, and Schroders Capital. Further, individuals selling shareholders include veteran industrialist Ratan Tata.

The company will use net proceeds from the fresh issue for setting up new modern stores under the brand 'BabyHug', investment in subsidiaries, overseas expansion, and sales and marketing initiatives. Besides, a portion will be used for corporate general purposes. Brokerage houses have pegged the company's market capitalisation to Rs 24,142 crore post-issue.

Launched in 2010, FirstCry is India's largest multi-channel, multi-brand retailing platform for mothers', babies' and kids' products. It was set up to create a one-stop destination for parenting needs across commerce, content, community engagement, and education, based on brand affinity, loyalty and trust of customers.

Further, FirstCry expanded internationally in select markets, establishing a presence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in 2019 and 2022, respectively. The company said that 75 per cent of the issue size has been reserved for qualified institutional buyers, 35 per cent for non-institutional investors and the remaining 10 per cent for retail investors.

Investors can bid for a minimum of 32 equity shares and in multiples thereof. Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd, Morgan Stanley India Company Private Ltd, BofA Securities India Ltd, JM Financial Ltd and Avendus Capital Private Ltd are the book-running lead managers to the issue.

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