Ola Electric to launch IPO on Aug 2 to raise Rs 5,500 cr

Electric two-wheeler company Ola Electric Mobility will float its initial public offering (IPO) on August 2, and a significant part of the proceeds will be used for capacity expansion of its cell manufacturing plant and revving up R&D.

The initial share sale will conclude on August 6, and the bidding for anchor investors will open for a day on August 1, according to the red herring prospectus (RHP).

The company's proposed IPO is a combination of a fresh issue of equity shares up to Rs 5,500 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 8.49 crore equity shares by promoters and investors, the prospectus showed.

Under the OFS, Ola Electric founder Bhavish Aggarwal will offload almost 3.8 crore shares.

The price band of the company's maiden public issue will be announced on Monday.

For Ola Electric, the IPO will provide the much-needed impetus to invest in enhancing cell manufacturing capacity and research and development on future technologies and products.

According to its prospectus, Ola Electric Mobility Ltd (OEML) plans to utilise Rs 1,227.6 crore out of the proceeds of its Rs 5,500 crore public issue on capacity expansion of its cell manufacturing plant to 6.4 GWh from 5 GWh.

The company is also looking to use Rs 1,600 crore from the fresh fund on research and product development, another Rs 800 crore will be deployed to repay debts and Rs 350 crore for organic growth initiatives.

In its RHP, OEML said that Phase 1 (a) and Phase 1 (b) of the set-up and expansion of the Ola Gigafactory at Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu will be funded from internal accruals and long-term borrowings availed by its arm Ola Cell Technologies Pvt Ltd (OCT).

Phase 1 (a) is expected to be completed by March 2024 and the gigafactory will have a capacity of 1.4 GWh.

In the Phase 1 (b), the capacity will be increased to 5 GWh by October 2024.

These will be funded from internal accruals and long-term borrowings availed by OCT, it added.

Phase 2 of the expansion envisions scaling up the capacity to 6.4 GWh by April 2025 and taking it up to 20 GWh by the second quarter of 2026.

In the details of the objectives of the IPO, the company said a portion of the proceeds will be used for capital expenditure to be incurred by OCT for the expansion of the capacity of the cell manufacturing plant from 5 GWh to 6.4 GWh.

OEML, which had on August 15, 2023, announced a line-up of electric motorcycles -- Cruiser, Adventure, Roadster and Diamondhead -- and expects to begin delivery of the motorcycles in the first half of fiscal 2026.

On future product launch plans, the company said, "We plan to further launch affordable mass market Ola S1 models, including E2Ws (electric two-wheelers) targeted at the personal, business-to-business and last-mile delivery segment by the first half of fiscal 2025."

"We also plan to commence delivery of our motorcycles, which we announced on August 15, 2023, by the first half of fiscal 2026.

"We plan to further expand our product portfolio to also cover mass market motorcycles to capture a broader base of consumers across different product types and price points in the long run."

Last month, Ola Electric got market regulator Sebi's nod to launch its initial share sale.