India’s HomeShop18 targets $100m IPO in the US – report
HomeShop18, the online retail arm of Indian media group Network 18, is said to be readying a US IPO that could raise about $100 million. The company raised $26 million from SAIF Partners in two tranches between 2007 and 2008.
Sundeep Malhotra, founder and CEO of HomeShop18, told Reuters that the company hopes to list but has yet to settle on a timeframe. According to sources familiar with the situation, HomeShop18 is already in preliminary talks with institutional investors and bankers on how to structure a public offering.
The company, which also received $18.5 million from Korea's GS Home Shopping in 2009, generates revenues of INR7.5 billion ($142 million) and sells a wide range of consumer products, including mobile phones, laptops and apparel. It wants to increase its warehousing capacity from 300,000-400,000 square feet to 1 million square feet.
One of HomeShop18's major rivals, Flipkart, raised $150 million from existing investors Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management in its fourth round of funding in February. It also purchased e-commerce platform Letsbuy.com for an estimated $25 million, prompting expectations of consolidation within India's online shopping space.
Travel website MakeMyTrip, which raised $70 million on NASDAQ in August 2010, remains the benchmark for Indian firms seeking overseas listings. In the past five years, only three other PE or VC-backed tech companies have launched IPOs - partly a result of regulations that require firms incorporated in India to go public at home before venturing overseas.
However, industry participants are confident that the number will increase in the next few years.
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