Indian electric scooter maker Ather Energy’s $352 million IPO reached full subscription on the final day of bidding on Wednesday, led by demand from large institutional and foreign investors.
The GIC- and Tiger Global-backed company is seeking a valuation of $1.4 billion through the primary share sale, India’s third-largest in 2025 and the first IPO of fiscal year 2026.
Qualified institutional buyers, including large foreign investors, for whom the highest portion of shares were reserved, bid for 1.3 times the 28.9 million shares on offer to them.
They were followed by retail investors, who bid for 14.1 million or 1.45 times the shares on offer for them.
Retail investors are generally offered the most number of shares in Indian IPOs but were offered the second-lowest number of shares in the Ather IPO.
Ather was one of the first companies to sell e-scooters in India in 2018, but has fallen behind larger rivals Ola Electric, TVS Motor, and Bajaj Auto whose discounts and larger distribution network have driven sales.
The company, majority owned by India’s top motorcycle maker Hero MotoCorp, will use most of the 26.26 billion rupees it raises from the sale of new shares for building its own factory and on research and development.
It plans to use a little over a tenth of the funds raised for marketing expenses.
Last week, Ather allotted shares worth 13.40 billion rupees to large institutions, including the likes of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Singapore’s Temasek as well as local mutual funds and insurers.
Reuters
