Bajaj Housing Finance IPO: Draft Prospectus Likely To Be Filed In June

Bajaj Housing Finance Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bajaj Finance Ltd., has started work on an initial public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The company is planning to file a draft prospectus for the IPO in June and, subsequently, start marketing activities and roadshow preparation in August, the people said on the condition of anonymity.

Based on current discussions for the IPO, advisers have been appointed. If everything goes as planned, the housing finance company may get listed on the bourses by the end of 2024 or early 2025.

For Tier 1, Kotak Investment Banking, Bank of America and Axis Capital have been appointed as advisers, according to the people quoted above.

NDTV Profit previously reported that Bajaj Housing Finance is expecting a valuation of around $8–10 billion. The tentative size of the IPO is expected to be around $1 billion.

The development comes in response to the Reserve Bank of India's compliance requirements, which include scale-based regulations for non-banking financial companies. According to these rules, upper-layer NBFCs have to list on the exchanges within three years of being notified.

While media reports earlier suggested that Bajaj Housing Finance sought more time from the RBI to list on bourses, the work for the IPO has now started. The board of directors of Bajaj Housing Finance was evaluating various options for meeting mandatory listing conditions, it said in its investor presentation for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024.

For this, the board of the housing finance company also constituted a committee to undertake various actions.

Queries mailed to Bajaj Finance did not elicit a response at the time of publishing this story.

For the quarter ended March 31, 2024, Bajaj Housing Finance's AUM was up 32% year-on-year to Rs 91,370 crore. Net interest income, or core income, grew 11% year-on-year to Rs 629 crore and net total income rose 14% year-on-year to Rs 717 crore.

The company's PAT grew 26% year-on-year to Rs 381 crore. Its overall approvals increased 19% year-on-year to Rs 19,417 crore, and disbursements grew 26% to Rs 11,393 crore on a yearly basis.