Ola Cabs Plans $500 Million IPO, Aims To List With Ola Electric This Year

Bhavish Aggarwal-founded Ola Cabs is planning for a $500 million initial public offering, with a valuation of $5 billion.

The SoftBank-backed ride-hailing platform is in talks with bankers for the initial share sale and plans to appoint the lead bankers in the next 2-3 weeks after the formal pitch, three people with knowledge of the matter told NDTV Profit on the condition of anonymity.

The DRHP is aimed to be filed in the next three months, said one of the persons quoted above. Ola Cabs and Ola Electric are separate companies and can get listed this year, the person said.

It's sister Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. had filed its draft red herring prospectus with SEBI in December, but is yet to get the nod from the market regulator.

Ola Electric IPO may happen before Ola Cabs' filing, said the second person quoted above. The queries asked in the process by the regulator have been provided and the approval for Ola Electric issue should come soon, the person said.

Last week, Ola Cabs decided to shutter its overseas ride-hailing business altogether from three international markets—the UK, Australia and New Zealand—by the end of this month, to concentrate on the domestic market.

In January, Ola announced former Unilever executive Hemant Bakshi's appointment as the chief executive and had also said its mobility business hit Ebitda-level profitability in the last financial year.

Ola operator, ANI Technologies Pvt.'s standalone earnings, which take into account only Ola's mobility business, posted "segment-adjusted" earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of about Rs 250 crore, the company had said.

The company's consolidated revenue from operations rose 42% to Rs 2,799.3 crore in FY23, as compared with Rs 1,970.4 crore in FY22, as it stepped out of the pandemic-hit FY21 and FY22. Losses contracted for the firm to Rs 772.2 crore from Rs 1,522.3 crore, according to partial disclosures on the firm's website.

The ride-hailing business posted a revenue of Rs 1,987.5 crore, up from Rs 1,220.2 crore in FY22. Loss from the business stood at Rs 1,082 crore, narrowing down significantly from Rs 3,082 crore.