Ecom Express, a third-party logistics solution provider to the e-commerce industry is looking to enter the primary market with an initial public offering (IPO) of Rs 3,000 crore as per two sources reported to the Economic times. It has also appointed bankers such as Kotak Capital, IIFL, Axis Capital, and UBS.
"Ecom Express has initiated the process for the public issue, which includes both a fresh issue and an offer for sale from the existing investors. The company is likely to file its draft red herring prospectus soon," said a source to the Economic Times.
Ecom Express supplies products for online marketplaces and consumer brands like FabIndia, Caratlane, and Decathlon. It also provides prosus-backed e-commerce marketplace Meesho, which recently launched its in-house logistics service provider Valmo. Warburg Pincus has a share of 33.76 per cent in the company, while Switzerland based Partners Group and British International Investments own 17.57 per cent and 6.48 per cent respectively.
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Previously, the Gurugram-based firm, which competes with Delhivery and Xpressbees, as well as Flipkart’s Ekart Logistics and Amazon Transportation Services, withheld its planned public listing in 2022 due tough market conditions.
Paytm, Nykaa, Zomato, Nazara Technologies, CarTrade, and EaseMyTrip were some of the companies that had successfully launched their IPOs in 2020 and 2021. The poor performance of these IPOS post-listing, however, has led to only a few companies like Delhivery, Tracxn, succeeding in raising funds through public issues in 2022. The rest have postponed their plans.
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Delhivery, currently trading at Rs 400, was listed in May 2022 at Rs 487, has dropped down by 20 per cent.
Ecom Express reported a 20 per cent increase in revenue to Rs 2,548 in FY2023. It had also reported a loss of Rs 375 crores in FY23 compared to a loss of Rs 91 crore in FY22. The Company’s expenditure rose about 30 per cent to Rs 2,856 crore in FY23.
Earlier in June 25, it was reported that the company would be looking to raise Rs 1,424 crore through a rights issue likely to be held by its investors, such as Warburg Pincus, British International Investment (BII), and Partners Group.
A resolution for the rights issue of Rs 1.57 million compulsorily convertible preference shares at Rs 9,071 apiece- the same price at which Ecom Express did a rights issue in July last year was passed by the company’s shareholders, according to regulatory filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), as reported by ET.
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