Delivery agents of online food ordering and delivery platform, Swiggy. Representative image.
Credit: DH Photo
Swiggy Ltd.’s $1.3 billion initial public offering was subscribed more than three times on Friday, driven by a late surge in demand from large investors for the Indian food-delivery platform.
The offering, one of the few $1 billion-plus listings in India this year, drew bids for six times the shares kept for foreigners and domestic money managers. The retail tranche was also fully covered.
For many, this IPO was seen as a test of whether the market still has an appetite for large first-time share sales after Hyundai Motor India Ltd’s record $3.3 billion offer had a lukewarm debut. Swiggy’s offering also came at a time when global funds have been persistent sellers of local shares on concerns about pricey valuations and slower earnings growth.
Prosus NV-backed Swiggy’s offering includes a fresh issue of up to about 45 billion rupees ($535 million) and a sale of as many as 175.1 million shares by shareholders including venture-capital firm Accel and Tencent Cloud Europe BV. The company expects to list the shares by Nov. 13.
Swiggy allocated 130.4 million shares worth 50.9 billion rupees ($605 million) to anchor investors at 390 rupees apiece, the top of the IPO’s price band, according to an exchange filing Tuesday. Anchor investors included global funds like Fidelity International and Invesco.
In addition to contending with weak market sentiment, Swiggy’s losses may also have been be a sticking point for retail investors. The company posted a loss of 6.1 billion rupees ($73 million) for the three months ended June. Rival Zomato, which went public in 2021, reported a profit for the same period.