The Bengaluru-based company listed on stock exchanges Friday, with its shares commencing trading 2.2% up at Rs 279.05 on the BSE, compared with the IPO price of Rs 273. The shares ended the opening day’s trading at Rs 260.20, nearly 4.7% lower from the issue price after falling 7% in intraday trade.
Investors in red
Peak XV Partners, which first backed Blackbuck in 2018, sold part of its shares through the IPO at 12% lower than the acquisition price. The venture capital firm holds a 1.3% stake, worth Rs 60 crore at Friday’s closing stock price, in Blackbuck after the IPO.
The value of the stake held by Silicon Valley venture capital investor Tribe Capital was 39% lower at the end of the firm’s debut day in public markets compared with the price it paid to acquire it in 2021.
Blackbuck went public at a valuation of Rs 4,818 crore — down from its last private valuation of Rs 7,500 crore in the 2021 round that led by Tribe Capital. At the closing stock price on the BSE Friday, its market capitalisation was Rs 4,592 crore.
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Blackbuck isn’t the first new-age firm to go public at a valuation lower than its last private value. Electric two-wheeler maker Ola Electric’s IPO happened at a $4 billion valuation, 25% lower than its last private round. Go Digit insurance also went public at a 25% discount to its last private valuation.Early investors gain
Accel, Flipkart and Tiger Global, which were among the earliest investors of Blackbuck — having invested in the company in 2015 — are sitting on gains despite the valuation being lowered for the IPO and the fall in the stock price following the listing.
While Accel sold stake worth Rs 117 crore in the IPO’s offer for sale component, it still holds a stake worth Rs 495 crore. Flipkart sold shares worth Rs 151 crore and still has a stake worth Rs 416 crore.
After an IPO, investors cannot offload shares for at least six months as per the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s lock-in rules.
New York-based Tiger Global, which led Blackbuck’s Series B round in December 2015, has fully exited its position in the company. It raised Rs 37.4 crore from the IPO, after having divested Rs 94 crore worth of shares on November 8.
Bumpy road
For Blackbuck, the almost ten-year old journey has not been without its ups and downs. The company, founded in 2015, had initially taken a full-stack approach to aggregating trucks. But this model did not take off, and it transitioned to a more asset-light model connecting fleet operators with customers.
Blackbuck competed with Warburg Pincus-backed Rivigo, which was acquired by the Mahindra Group in 2022.
The company has turned itself around operationally. For the three months ended June 30, Blackbuck reported operating revenue of Rs 92 crore, up 56% on year. It posted Ebitda of Rs 14.5 crore against negative Ebitda of Rs 26 crore in the same period last year.
Speaking at the listing ceremony, founder Rajesh Yabaji said: “Trucking is a sector which is not a bed of roses. We have been able to get through … At this milestone where you go public, the responsibility to really make a difference goes up 10x.”
The initial public offering was subscribed over 1.86 times by the end of its book-building process on November 18, receiving bids for more than 41.9 million shares against the 22.5 million shares on offer, according to data from the BSE.
The IPO consisted of a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 550 crore and an offer for sale of up to Rs 565 crore.
Before the public issue, the company raised Rs 501 crore from anchor investors that included Nomura, Hornbill Orchid India Fund, BNP Paribas Funds, SBI Mutual Fund, Steadview Capital Mauritius, Invesco India, SBI General Insurance, Bandhan Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and Nuvama Multi Asset Strategy Return Fund.
