FirstCry's parent firm Brainbees Solutions files draft papers for IPO

Brainbees Solutions Ltd, which owns omnichannel baby and mother-care product platform FirstCry, on Thursday, filed preliminary papers with capital markets regulator Sebi to raise funds through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

The Pune-based company's proposed IPO comprises a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to Rs 1,816 crore and an Offer For Sale (OFS) of up to 5.44 crore equity shares by existing shareholders, according to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP).

As a part of the OFS, SVF Frog, a Cayman Islands-registered entity of Softbank, will sell 2.03 crore equity shares of Brainbees Solutions Ltd, and automaker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) will offload 28.06 lakh shares of the company.

Currently, Softbank holds a 25.55% stake in Brainbees Solutions and M&M owns a 10.98% stake in the multi-brand retailing platform, the draft papers showed.

Earlier this week, SoftBank sold shares worth Rs 630 crore in FirstCry. It was picked up by a few high net worth individuals. With this sale, the Japanese investment conglomerate realised $310 million from two rounds of stake sale in FirstCry.

SoftBank had invested $400 million in FirstCry at an enterprise valuation of $900 million.

Apart from Softbank and M&M, other selling shares in the OFS are PI Opportunities Fund (86.01 lakh shares), TPG (38.99 lakh shares), NewQuest Asia Investments (30.14 lakh shares), Apricot Investments (25.23 lakh shares), Valiant Mauritius (24.04 lakh shares), TIMF Holdings (8.37 lakh shares), Think India Opportunities Fund (8.37 lakh shares) and Schroders Capital (6.17 lakh shares).

Proceeds from the fresh issue would be used to open new stores and warehouses in India as well as in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), besides, the capital will be used for sales and marketing initiatives, and investment in the company's arm, Globalbees Brands, for acquisition of additional stake in its indirect subsidiaries.

The company's consolidated net loss has widened to Rs 486.05 crore in FY 2022-23 from Rs 78.68 crore in the preceding financial year. However, its consolidated revenue was up over two-fold to Rs 5,632.53 crore for the financial year which ended on March 31, 2023, as against Rs 2,401.28 crore a year ago.

Launched in 2010, FirstCry is India's largest multi-channel, multi-brand retailing platform for mothers, babies and kids. It was set up with an aim of creating a one-stop destination for parenting needs across commerce, content, community engagement, and education, based on brand affinity, loyalty and trust of customers.

As of June 30, 2023, the company offered more than one million SKUs (stock keeping units) from over 6,800 brands, including third-party Indian brands, global brands, and their home brands. It has a network of 936 FirstCry and BabyHug modern stores in 465 cities in 27 states and four union territories across India.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd, Morgan Stanley India Company Private Ltd, BofA Securities India Ltd, JM Financial Ltd and Avendus Capital Private Ltd are the book-running lead managers to the issue.