Ather Energy IPO Price Band Set At Rs 304-321 Per Share For Rs 3,000 Crore Fundraising

Ather Energy Ltd. has set the price band for a Rs 3,000-crore initial public offering at an estimated valuation of Rs 12,000 crore.

Shares in the first mainboard IPO of the ongoing financial year will be offered in a price band of Rs 304-321 apiece, at the upper end of which the Bengaluru-based EV maker will end up raising up to Rs 3,000 crore, according to a newspaper ad put out on Wednesday. Bids can be made for a minimum of 46 shares or multiples thereof. A discount of Rs 30/share is applicable for eligible employees.

Since the company was in loss in the financial year ending March 2024, a price-to-earnings ratio was not ascertainable.

The Ather Energy IPO, albeit smaller in size, includes a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 2,626 crore and an offer for sale of 11.05 equity shares. While co-founders and promoters Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain are participating, offloading nearly a million shares each, largest shareholder Hero MotoCorp Ltd. is abstaining and holding on to its 37.5% stake.

Ather Energy will be the first mainboard IPO of this financial year, as the stock market is finally showing some signs of recovery after months of correction. It would be a test of investor appetite, nonetheless, given the convulsions at BluSmart (Gensol Engineering Ltd.) and Ola Electric Mobility Ltd.

Still, Mehta and Jain would take succour from the surge in sales since the DRHP.

Ather Energy’s sales rose 20% year-on-year to 1.30 lakh units in the previous financial year, even as the wider electric two-wheeler industry grew 58% but market leader Ola Electric slumped. That gave the Bengaluru-based company a market share of 11.4% in the financial year 2024-25 as against 11.5% in the preceding year.

Founded in 2013, Ather was a college project of IIT Madras graduates Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain. The first scooter broke cover only in 2018, as the duo chose to fix the nuts and bolts, and watts and volts, of the product before a commercial launch. The second offering, the Rizta family scooter, came only last year, opening new geographies for the premium EV maker. Now, the company is set to become the second pure-play EV maker to list in India.