FirstCry to announce its $1 billion IPO plan shortly
FirstCry is already a popular name in marketing circles for its sharp focus on baby and infant products. Now FirstCry is planning a mega initial public offering (IPO) to raise close to Rs.7,600 crore or approximately $1 billion.
The company is currently in talks with investment banks about the size and timing of the IPO even as the filing is now expected to happen in May, after the LIC IPO is completed.
Reportedly, FirstCry has already roped in Kotak Mahindra Capital and Morgan Stanley as the book running lead managers to the issue. However, more bankers are likely to be added to the list of investment bankers.
Managing a $1 billion issue is a complex affair and will require the investment banker to have a strong domestic and global franchise in terms of its institutional business. As of now, more details about the IPO are yet being worked out.
It has been reported that the proposed IPO of FirstCry will be a combination of primary and secondary issue of shares. That means it will have a fresh issue component and also an offer for sale (OFS) component.
While the fresh issue will dilute the capital and EPS, the OFS will give an exit to some of the early investors in FirstCry. This is likely to be the first of its kind listing of an infant specialized company coming out with a pure play IPO.
FirstCry was incorporated in 2010 by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha. Currently, FirstCry boasts of over 75 lakh registered customers. FirstCry also lists and catalogues more than 2 lakh unique products across 6,000 brands.
The products offered on FirstCry include clothing, footwear, accessories, toys, toiletries, feeding supplies etc. The company also has more than 400 storefronts across India, with a presence in the UAE as well.
FirstCry had in 2016 undertaken an inorganic expansion of its business by paying Rs.362 crores through a combination of cash and equity for the baby care company, BabyOye. Incidentally, BabyOye is part of the Mahindra & Mahindra group.
If the FirstCry issue goes through, it will be the first infant specialized company to come out with an IPO. Earlier, Lilliput and Gini & Jony had made IPO plans but had subsequently shelved the same.
FirstCry also has a robust online ecommerce and e-publishing presence. Here, it competes in the online publishing space alongside Hopscotch and Kids Stop Press.
The online publishing business of FirstCry became a unicorn in 2020 after getting funding of $296 million from its major stakeholder, Softbank. FirstCry Parenting, India's largest parenting community, is also available through the portal and is an online community for parents to share and care.
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