Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Zoya and Farhan Akhtar To Hold 26% Gains in IPO-Bound Ola Electric: Report

Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Film director Zoya Akhtar, and her brother Farhan Akhtar who own a substantial amount of preferential shares in Ola Electric will not sell them in the company’s upcoming initial public offering (IPO) as per a report by Moneycontrol.

Preferential shares are shares used by companies to raise more funds as they give more rights to investors compared to equity funds. When an IPO is filed for a company, the preference shares are converted into ordinary shares.

As per an analysis by Moneycontrol, Sharma and the Akhtar duo currently have a 26 per cent gain at the upper end of the offer price band of Rs 72-76 a share. This is recorded as of December 21, 2021.

Reportedly, Sharma currently holds 12.45 lakh shares in Ola Electric, Zoya Akhtar 1.78 lakh, Farhan Akhtar 2.56 lakh and Ritesh Sidhwani 3.56 lakhs.

Sharma, who acquired seven series C preference shares for Rs 7.5 crore through his investment arm VSS Investco Pvt Ltd, is now valued at Rs 8.96 crore and Rs 9.46 crore at the lower and upper end of the price brand

Similarly, Zoya Akhtar acquired a single series C preference share for Rs 1.07 crore, while Farhan bought 2 shares for Rs 2.14 crore. 

Ritesh Sidhwani, co-founder of film production house Excel Entertainment with Farhan, has two shares in Ola Electric’ Series C round.

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Ola Electric promoter Bhavish Aggarwal holds 1.36 billion shares, or a 36.94 per cent stake, valued at Rs 10,350 crore based on the price band. He acquired this stake for a negligible amount, according to the DRHP.

It is reported that many pre-IPO investors could be starting at potential losses as the price band of the share is set to be lower than their average acquisition price- a situation that has not happened in recent years.

Investors such as Alpine Opportunity Fund VI LP and Tekne Private Ventures XV Ltd which bought shares for Rs 111.51 and Rs  113.12 are said to mount losses up to 30%.

Early investors such as Tiger Global and Matrix Partners stand to enjoy multi-bagger gains as per reports

The IPO which opens for subscription on August 2  comprises a fresh issue of Rs 5,500 crore and an offer for sale of 84.94 million. The upper price band of OFS will be at RS 645.96 crore. The issue which closes on August 6, amounts to Rs 6145.96 crore.