Brainbees Solutions,  Firstcry’s parent firm, files papers with SEBI to go public

• Brainbees Solutions will sell shares worth ₹1,816 crore and existing investors, including SoftBank, will sell up to 54.4 million shares
• FirstCry’s biggest shareholder, SoftBank, holds a 25.5 per cent stake in the firm. It had sold shares worth ₹630 crore in FirstCry earlier this month

NE BUSINESS BUREAU

AHMEDABAD, DEC 29

Brainbees Solutions, the parent company of online retailer Firstcry, has filed for an initial public offer (IPO), Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Brainbees Solutions will sell shares worth ₹1,816 crore and existing investors, including tech-to-tractors firm Mahindra And Mahindra and US private equity fund TPG, will sell up to 54.4 million shares, the IPO papers showed.

FirstCry’s biggest shareholder, SoftBank, holds a 25.5 per cent stake in the firm. It had sold shares worth ₹ 630 crore in FirstCry earlier this month. The Japanese conglomerate had invested $400 million in FirstCry at an enterprise valuation of $900 million. The extent of shares SoftBank will sell was not immediately clear.

FirstCry, which saw its losses widen six-fold in fiscal 2022-2023 due to rising costs, said it would use funds from the IPO for expanding stores in India and Saudi Arabia, and to clear its leases for existing Indian stores.

The company has a network of 936 stores in India, but has not disclosed its store count in Saudi Arabia.

Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, and Kotak Mahindra Capital are among the investment bankers for the share sale.

FirstCry is India’s largest multi-channel retailing platform for Mothers’, Babies’ and Kids’ products, in terms of GMV, for the year ending December 2022.  The business has demonstrated revenue growth from FY21 to FY23.  For FY21, FY22, FY23 and the three months ended June 30, 2023, the revenue from operations was ₹16,028.54 million, ₹24,012.88 million, ₹56,325.39 million, and ₹14,069.33 million, respectively, in accordance with the Restated Consolidated Financial Statements. This increase in revenue from operations is as a result of both organic and inorganic growth.