New Delhi: This comes as boat revenue fell 5% in FY24 to Rs 3,285 crore, while its halved losses to Rs.70.8 crore. The source said there’s a consolidation underway in the sector and that the recent Diwali season lifted sales after several muted quarters. Boat recorded positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization in FY24. Homegrown wearable and audio products brand Boat has finalized ICICI Securities, Goldman Sachs, and Nomura as bankers for a $300-500 million IPO next year, sources aware of the matter said, joining the queue of new-age firms looking to go public.
Delhi-based Boat may aim for a valuation of over $1.5 billion, the source said, adding these numbers may change closer to the IPO filing. It’s targeting a public offer in the next financial year, boat had filed draft papers for the public offering in 2022 but halted those plans citing market conditions and raised $60 million in private capital through convertible preferred stocks notes from existing investor Warburg Pincus and new investor Malabar Investments at a minimum valuation cap of around $1.2 billion.
ICICI Securities is the lead banker for the issue and they are looking to file for next financial year, one of the persons said. In total, they have finalized four bankers, The Spokesperson for Boat and Goldman Sachs declined to comment while emails sent to the other bankers mentioned above didn’t elicit any response. While Swiggy made a better-than-expected debut on stock exchanges with its $1.3 billion IPO on Wednesday, several new-age firms like FirstCry, Ola Electric, Awifs, and others have gone public this year with many going cautions on their listing price compared with their last private valuation.
They have been internally following the IPO reporting process since they already filed the draft IPO papers once, said one of the persons cited. The idea is to redraw the plan capturing all its business, one of the sources said, the company plans to launch operations in the UAE, cofounder Aman Gupta said at the ET Soonicorns Summit in September.
Boat’s IPO plans come at a time of audio segment sales grow high in the festive season but we talk about the wearable segment business remaining non-active. The wearables segment which includes wireless audio devices and smartwatches witnessed a 10% day-by-day decline in shipments special in the June quarter amid the caution inventory management and fewer new launches from maintaining their sales in wearable segments.
