Furniture Retailer pepper fried has started reviewing its trading structure as it plans to debut on the Indian stock exchanges.

For starters, founders Ambareesh Murty and Ashish Shah have re-domiciled Pepperfry from the Cayman Islands to Mumbai. They had registered Pepperfry in the Cayman Islands because the previous plan was to establish a list in the US. Subsequently, they changed their strategy as according to Indian capital market regulations, a company registered abroad cannot make an initial public offering (initial public offering) here.

The partners are also shaping the composition of the company’s board of directors, joining directors, to comply with local capital market laws. The rules require that the board of directors be composed of 33 per cent independent directors, if their President is an independent director.

Pepperfry is seeking to raise up to $300 million through the sale of new shares and a secondary offering of shares. While the founders are not interested in ditching their shares in the IPO, outside investors such as Norwest Ventures, Broad Street Investments, Bertelsmann and General Electric Pension Trust, which have a large stake in Pepperfry, are likely to do so. Cash a portion of your investments.

However, there is a limit to the amount of shares that can be sold through the initial public offering. The rules state that the sale of shares by investors who own more than 20 per cent in a company must not exceed 50 per cent of their pre-issue holding, while that of shareholders who own less than 20 per cent must not exceed 10 per cent of its participation prior to the issue. tenure.

Pepperfry plans to file a draft IPO prospectus with capital markets regulator Sebi this year. So far it has raised $285 million through equity and debt to fund its growth ambitions. “Pepperfry is well capitalized and well on its way to profitability,” said co-founder Shah. The last time it raised $40 million debt was in November 2021 and managed to cut its operating loss by 60 per cent to Rs 37 crore in FY2021. In FY2020, operating loss was Rs 95 million rupees.

Categories: IPO Bankers

Tags: ambareesh murty, ashish shah, furniture, furniture retailer, IPO, IPOs in India, Pepperfry