Ola Electric Converts To Public Entity Ahead Of IPO

The Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Electric has converted to a public company ahead of an imminent public listing.

Ola Electric Mobility Pvt., the pure-play electric vehicle manufacturing arm of ride-hailing giant Ola, converted to Ola Electric Mobility Ltd., according to filings with the Registrar of Companies, Bengaluru, on Friday.

This comes ahead of a public listing by the firm, which raised as much as Rs 3,200 crore in October in a mix of equity and debt.

Ola Electric has grown to become India’s leading manufacturer of electric vehicles and stands to have a market share of almost 35% in about two years of operation.

BQ Prime had earlier reported that Ola Electric's spending requirements to scale up its various businesses make it the right time to go public.

“The timing is perfect for an IPO, as investors are looking for opportunities to bet on greener and more sustainable businesses, while the company itself may be under pressure because of too many unknowns and its high capex requirements going forward,” Puneet Gupta, director at S&P Global, told BQ Prime.

Ola Electric hasn’t generated profit yet to fund its own operations. In FY22, the company posted a revenue of Rs 373.4 crore, up from Rs 86 lakh in FY21, when it was a pre-revenue company.

The loss widened to Rs 784.1 crore in fiscal 2022 from Rs 199.2 crore in FY21. The expenses jumped to Rs 1,240.4 crore in FY22 from Rs 305.4 crore in the year-ago period, corporate filings showed.