Ratan Tata, the veteran industrialist and former Chairman of Tata Group, is set to make a significant move in the business world by divesting his entire holdings in FirstCry, a prominent omnichannel platform for baby and mother-care products. This decision comes as FirstCry prepares for its Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Tata initially invested in Brainbees Solutions Ltd, the parent company of FirstCry, in 2016 with an investment of Rs 66 lakh, which secured him preference shares in the company. He currently holds 77,900 shares, amounting to a 0.02% stake in FirstCry.
The upcoming IPO of the Pune-based company is a major event in the financial markets, involving a fresh issue of equity shares that could aggregate up to Rs 1,816 crore. Additionally, the IPO will feature an Offer For Sale (OFS) of up to 5.44 crore equity shares by existing shareholders.
Key players in this OFS include SVF Frog, a Cayman Islands-registered entity of Softbank, which plans to sell 2.03 crore equity shares of Brainbees Solutions Ltd. Another notable participant is the automaker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), set to offload 28.06 lakh shares. Other shareholders participating in the OFS are PI Opportunities Fund, TPG, NewQuest Asia Investments, Apricot Investments, Valiant Mauritius, TIMF Holdings, Think India Opportunities Fund, and Schroders Capital.
This move by Ratan Tata and other major stakeholders in FirstCry is a significant development in the Indian e-commerce sector, highlighting the ongoing transformations and investment opportunities within this dynamic market.