Mahindra Retail has received board approval to get rid of up to 2% of its stake in BrainBees, the parent company of FirstCry, via an Offer For Sale (OFS) as part of a share sale in the startup’s IPO.
Mahindra Retail also revealed that the actual number of shares of Brainbees to be deprived will be decided by the company later. In addition to this, the selling price of each share will be fixed on the basis of determining the issue size of the IPO.
From March 2021, Mahindra Retail owned 10.48% of FirstCry, while another subsidiary Mahindra Engineering and Chemical Products, obtained 3.11% in the startup as preference shares.
In 2015, Mahindra Group acquired BabyOye and combined it with FirstCry. During that coalition, Mahindra Retail had picked up a minority stake in BrainBees.
FirstCry, a baby product company was founded by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha in the year 2010. The e-commerce unicorn presents different categories of baby and kids products from clothing to other essentials.
It is backed by SoftBank, IDG Ventures, Valiant Capital Partners, and New Enterprise Associates. The e-commerce unicorn has so far raised $741.4 M in funding rounds over the years.
The development comes barely a week after the IPO-bound e-commerce unicorn’s board passed a resolution to transform the entity from private to public. The e-commerce unicorn is likely to file its bill of exchange red herring prospectus (DRHP) next month for a $1 Bn IPO.
In the kids and infant category, FirstCry is competing with brands, including Hopscotch, BabyMori, Shumee, and Kids Stop Press.
The kids wear segment was estimated to reach nearly INR 1.7 Tn in sales by 2028.
EXECUTIVE OPINION:
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) said, “The Strategic Investment Committee of the Board of Directors of the M&M today considered and accorded its approval to divest up to 94,46,156 (94.46 lakh) Equity Shares of Rs 2 each representing up to 2%…of Brainbees Solutions Private Limited (BrainBees) on a fully diluted basis, by way of Offer for Sale of Equity Shares as part of the proposed IPO of BrainBees.”