As per the latest reports, Ola, a major ride-hailing firm from India has made an announcement. According to analysts, the announcement is going to create a lot of anticipation among its stakeholders and the investors’ community.
The announcement revolves around the possibility of Ola making a move towards the public market. The report reveals that there are chances that Ola may launch itself into the public market in the upcoming year. This information was shared by Bhavish Aggarwal, the group CEO and chairman at Ola, during an interview at CNBC on Friday, August 20, 2021.
During the interview, Aggarwal revealed that both Ola and Ola Electric currently have strong capital. Both companies even have very strong and firm balance sheets, which look really good for the companies to make a move in the public market. Ola Electric is the arm of Ola that reportedly deals in the manufacturing of electric vehicles (EV).
In the interview, Aggarwal revealed that for now, the executives have not come up with a final decision. For now, they are considering the possibilities of going public and initially, going for the initial public offering (IPO). Aggarwal clarified that for now, they do not have any set date in mind in regards to the launch of the IPO, so no official announcement has been made.
He revealed that although the IPO’s have not been fully considered or decided, eventually, they are going to go public. He stated that despite significant and promising growth for both companies, they are still aiming to gain more maturity for both businesses.
Once they are confident and have strong figures/forecasts for the company, they are going to proceed with the IPO. He stated that they are speculating that the upcoming year would be the right choice for taking the companies to the next level.
Aggarwal did mention that soon, they will have an update on the matter and once they do, they will make a public announcement to make it official.
It was revealed in the month of July by sources from Ola that several major investors were planning to make a huge investment into Ola. The sources revealed that firms such as Temasek, a Singapore state investor, and Warburg Pincus have together proposed a $500 million investment into Ola.
The sources revealed that these particular entities were planning to make the investment prior to the possible IPO of Ola.
When asked to comment on the above piece of information, Ola representatives refrained from responding. As of now, Ola is reportedly back by SoftBank Group, which is based in Japan.
The media sources from India have revealed that one of the investment firms known as Tiger Global has already made a deal with Temasek and Pincus. The investment firm reportedly sold its shares to these major companies. However, the anti-monopoly regulator from India confirmed that these transactions were initiated after getting the go from their end.