Electric two-wheeler maker Ather Energy filed its red herring prospectus with Sebi on Tuesday, trimming the size of its IPO amid ongoing market volatility and subdued investor appetite.
As per the filing, the Bengaluru-based company has reduced the size of the fresh issue to Rs 2,626 crore, down from Rs 3,100 crore proposed in its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) filed in September 2024. The offer for sale (OFS) — through which promoters and existing investors offload shares — has also been halved to 11 million equity shares from the earlier 22 million.
The issue, which will be the first mainboard IPO of the current fiscal, opens for subscription on April 28 and closes on April 30. The anchor book will open on April 25. Founders Tarun Sanjay Mehta and Swapnil Babanlal Jain will now offload 0.9 million equity shares each, compared to 1 million shares proposed earlier.
Institutional investors including Caladium Investment, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund II, Internet Fund III Pte Ltd, and IITM Incubation Cell will collectively dilute 9 million shares, down from 20 million shares in the DRHP.
Currently, the company’s promoters — Mehta, Jain, and Hero MotoCorp — together hold a 51.8% stake in Ather, while the promoter group owns another 0.87%. Selling shareholders collectively own 29.29%.
Ather plans to use Rs 927 crore from the net proceeds for capital expenditure towards setting up a new electric two-wheeler manufacturing facility in Maharashtra. The proposed Rs 2,000-crore plant will have an annual capacity of over one million electric two-wheelers and battery packs. The company will also allocate Rs 750 crore for R&D, Rs 400 crore for repayment or prepayment of borrowings, and the remainder for marketing initiatives.
The scaled-down IPO comes amid weak investor sentiment toward tech companies that are yet to turn profitable. Shares of cross-city rival Ola Electric, which listed in August 2024, have been trading near record lows. The stock closed at Rs 53.02 on NSE, compared to its listing price of Rs 76. It had touched a post-listing high of Rs 157.40 but has since declined sharply due to regulatory scrutiny, service-related issues, and declining market share.
For the nine months ended December 2024, Ather reported a 28% year-on-year rise in revenue from operations to Rs 1,579 crore. Restated loss for the period stood at Rs 58 crore, compared to Rs 78 crore in the year-ago period.
In FY25, Ather’s sales rose 20% y-o-y to 130,945 units, capturing a market share of 11.39%. In the first two weeks of April, its share rose to 16%. The company sold 7,765 units of its flagship Ather 450 and newly launched family scooter Rizta during the month.