According to three sources with direct information, Indian e-scooter manufacturer Ola Electric intends to submit the necessary paperwork for its potential $700 million initial public offering (IPO) before the end of October.
Ola Electric, supported by investors such as Temasek in Singapore and SoftBank in Japan, was recently valued at $5.4 billion.
An Ola Electric executive asked external advisers on the IPO, including the investment banking units of India’s Kotak and ICICI, as well as foreign banks like Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, to give “utmost priority” to meet a five-week deadline in an email to its bankers and lawyers on Sunday, according to the sources.
While the other three banks declined to comment, Ola Electric and Kotak did not reply to a request for comment. Due to the internal nature of the communication, the sources did not want to be named.
The internal codename for Ola’s IPO project is “Project Himalaya,” and the memo included a directive to bankers and attorneys not to schedule any “long leaves to ensure availability,” according to the sources.
Senior bankers and lawyers at Indian companies planning IPOs are often not told not to take vacations, they claimed.
The Indian markets regulator will assess the IPO documents after they are submitted and may potentially make inquiries, indicating that any potential listing is still some months away.
According to one of the sources, Ola Electric plans to hold its roadshows for its IPO in early January or February.