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Omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart’s IPO saw a strong start, with the issue getting subscribed 18% within the first few hours.
Retail investors led the charge, with the portion reserved for them seeing 73% subscription. They placed bids for 1.3 Cr shares against 1.8 Cr shares on offer.
The employee portion followed next, witnessing a 62% subscription. Employees bid for 2.4 Lakh shares compared to 3.9 Lakh shares reserved for them.
Meanwhile, the non-institutional investors (NIIs) category recorded a 16% subscription, receiving bids for 44.5 Lakh shares against 2.7 Cr shares available for bidding.
Qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) placed bids for a negligible 23,384 shares as against 5.4 Cr share on offer.
The IPO of Lenskart will remain open for subscription until November. The company’s shares are expected to list on the bourses on November 10.
The company has set the IPO price band at INR 382 to INR 402. At the upper end of the band, Lenskart is valued at INR 69,726 Cr (about $8 Bn). This has also led to a debate on the company being overvalued.
Yesterday, the Peyush Bansal-led company raised INR 3,268.4 Cr from anchor investors, including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BlackRock, SBI, Government of Singapore, Steadview Capital, New York State Teachers Retirement System, among others.
Earlier this week, it also raised INR 100 Cr ($11.3 Mn) in its pre-IPO round from SBI Optimal Equity Fund (AIF) and SBI Emergent Fund (AIF).
The eyewear giant’s public issue comprises a fresh issue of shares worth INR 2,150 Cr and an offer-for-sale (OFS) component of up to 12.76 Cr equity shares. Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, Sumeet Kapah, Neha Bansal, SoftBank, Schroders Capital, Premji Invest, Temasek, Kedaara Capital, and Alpha Wave Ventures are among those offloading shares via the OFS.
Lenskart plans to use the fresh proceeds from the IPO to expand its physical retail presence by setting up new company-owned, company-operated stores across India. It will also use a chunk of the capital to make payments for rental or licence agreements for these stores, brand marketing, tech infrastructure and general corporate purposes.
On the financial front, Lenskart reported a net profit of INR 61.2 Cr in the first quarter of FY26 compared to a loss of INR 11 Cr in the year-ago period. Operating revenue zoomed 25% to INR 1,894.5 Cr from INR 1,520.4 Cr in Q1 FY25.
The post Lenskart IPO: Issue Subscribed 18% On Day 1 So Far appeared first on Inc42 Media.
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