Ola, the Bengaluru-based ride-hailing aggregator, is considering an initial public offering (IPO) early next year, with the goal of raising at least $1.5-2 billion and valuing at $12-14 billion. This places it among the group of big-ticket tech IPOs hoping to profit from a liquidity-driven market surge.

According to persons familiar with the subject, the proposed listing of Ola, which counts SoftBank, Tiger Global Management, and Tencent among its key investors, will raise half of the stock through a primary issuance and the rest through an offer for sale (OFS) from some early supporters.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citigroup, and JP Morgan are among the investment banks said to be working with the company on preliminary documents to be filed with the market regulator in the next two months.

"There could be a few more banks as the issue is likely to be above $1.5 billion. Final mandates are expected this week itself," said one of the persons cited above.

Warburg Pincus and Temasek Holdings, along with two other investors, put $500 million in Ola earlier this month in what may be considered a pre-IPO round.
Bhavish Aggarwal, the CEO of Ola, did not respond to questions emailed on Sunday. The banks mentioned did not respond to requests for comment right away.

"Whatever said and done, Ola's valuation would be a challenge. Many funds have lowered valuations during the previous year as the Covid pandemic and the subsequent lockdown hampered the travel cab market. Although it's recovering, it will take time to get stabilised," said one of the persons cited.

Due to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, US investors T Rowe Price and Vanguard cut their values of Indian startups, including Ola, in November.