LGEINDIA

Adds context in paragraph 5, minor changes throughout

By Vivek Kumar M

Nov 12 (Reuters) - Shares of Billionbrains Garage Ventures BILO.NS, parent of online brokerage Groww, jumped 24% in their market debut on Wednesday, valuing the firm at 761 billion rupees ($8.6 billion) as investors bet on India's retail investing boom after a run of weak listings.

The stock opened at 112 rupees on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and climbed to 124 rupees, well above its 100-rupee issue price in a $754 million IPO.

The debut valued Groww above listed peers Motilal Oswal Financial Services MOFS.NS and Angel One ANGO.NS, and offered relief to IPO investors after subdued market entries from Lenskart Solutions LENS.NS, Orkla India ORKL.NS, and Studds Accessories STUS.NS earlier this month.

"Groww represents a strong long-term structural story and can act as a proxy for India's expanding capital market participation," said Prashanth Tapse, senior vice-president of research at Mehta Equities.

India's NSE has been adding about 10 million registered investors every six to seven months since March 2021, taking its total investor base to 120 million as of September, the country's largest bourse said.

Groww's listing comes amid a flurry of IPOs in India, where over 300 companies have raised $16.55 billion so far in 2025, according to LSEG data. The country’s primary market is on track to surpass last year's record $20.5 billion, led by big-ticket listings from Tata Capital TATC.NS, LG Electronics India LGEL.NS, and HDB Financial Services HDBF.NS.

Founded in 2016, Groww is among the country's largest online investment platforms, offering trading in equities, mutual funds, and fixed-income products.

Still, some analysts warned that much of the near-term optimism may already be priced in. "The current valuations seem to fully capture the short-term growth prospects, and investors should watch out for a couple of quarterly earnings before making further investment decisions," said Kranthi Bathini, director of equity strategy at WealthMills Securities.

($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

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Nov 1 (Reuters) - Indian fintech firm Pine Labs has cut the size of its initial public offering, trimming by 44% the portion offered by existing investors and by 20% the new shares issued to raise funds, an updated prospectus showed.

The IPO, scheduled for November 7 to November 11, joins a wave of listings in a busy primary market. A provider of payment solutions such as point-of-sale terminals, Pine Labs competes with firms such as Paytm PAYT.NS and Walmart-owned PhonePe.

Existing investors, such as Peak XV Partners, PayPal and Mastercard, will now look to sell a total of 82.3 million shares, down from the 147.8 million planned in June's draft prospectus.

The company is also looking to raise 20.8 billion rupees ($236.65 million), down from 26 billion ($295.81 million) in June, its October 31 prospectus showed.

Indian regulations let companies modify their IPO size to a certain extent after they file draft papers.

Reuters could not immediately determine why Pine Labs trimmed its offer, and its expected valuation after the IPO.

The company was eyeing a $6-billion valuation at the time of the June filing, sources had told Reuters.

Pine Labs did not immediately respond to a Reuters query.

The updated prospectus shows Peak XV will aim to sell 23 million shares, while PayPal PYPL.O and Mastercard MA.N plan to dispose of 6.7 million and 5.9 million, respectively.

London-based private equity firm Actis and Singapore-based Temasek are also among the investors paring their stakes.

India is the third-largest IPO venue this year, expected to exceed a record of $20.5 billion in funds raised in 2024 amid blockbuster listings by companies such as LG Electronics India LGEL.NS.

Share sales by other tech-driven firms such as Groww, Lenskart, and boAt are also in the pipeline.

Pine Labs reported a profit of 261.44 million rupees for the nine months ended December 2024, off revenue of 12.08 billion.

($1=87.8950 rupees)

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Ashwin Manikandan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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Updates stock price in paragraph 2, adds details throughout

By Vivek Kumar M

Oct 17 (Reuters) - India's Canara HSBC Life Insurance CANR.NS made a muted debut on the bourses on Friday, as unappealing pricing and a crowded IPO market clouded the insurer's prospects.

Its stock was trading at 108.9 rupees, as of 10:50 a.m. IST, up 2.7% from its issue and listing price of 106 rupees, yielding the insurer a valuation of 105.15 billion rupees ($1.20 billion).

Peers SBI Life Insurance SBIL.NS and HDFC Life Insurance HDFL.NS are valued around $21 billion and $18 billion, respectively.

Canara HSBC Life Insurance, which is a joint venture between Canara Bank and HSBC Insurance (Asia-Pacific) Holdings, struggled to garner bids from retail and non-institutional investors earlier this week.

Retail investors subscribed 42% of their quota, while high-net-worth individuals subscribed a third of their shares in the $283 million IPO.

Thanks to qualified institutional buyers, the issue was subscribed 2.29 times, which was still lower than most other IPOs that opened in the last couple of weeks.

For instance, another Canara Bank-promoted entity, Canara Robeco Asset Management CANE.NS, received bids worth nearly 10-fold and closed 13% higher in its debut on Thursday.

Choice Broking said the insurer's valuation appeared to be fully priced, with price-to-enterprise value multiple, a stock valuation metric, of 1.6x, while industry averaged 2.4x.

"High dependence on bancassurance (where banks sell insurance) and relatively lower VNB (value of new business) margins compared to peers is expected to keep valuation multiples at a discount to peers," ICICI Direct said.

The insurer got 87% of its new business premium in fiscal year 2024-25 through bancassurance, with Canara Bank contributing 70.6% of this.

The listing caps a busy week for the Indian IPO market, which saw five stock debuts, including a blockbuster listing from LG Electronics India LGEL.NS and a muted start from the country's largest IPO of the year, Tata Capital TATC.NS. ($1 = 87.8387 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Harikrishnan Nair)

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Updates shares level, adds details, background from paragraph 2 onwards

Oct 16 (Reuters) - Indian asset manager Canara Robeco's CANE.NS shares jumped 13% in their trading debut on the National Stock Exchange on Thursday, valuing the company at around 60 billion rupees ($681.42 million).

The Mumbai-based firm's stock rose to 302 rupees, above the 266 rupee issue price.

The listing follows its nearly $150 million IPO that was subscribed about 10-fold earlier this week.

It is a busy week for India's primary market, as the country's largest IPO of the year Tata Capital TATC.NS, and LG Electronics India LGEL.NS also made their debut.

Canara Robeco's IPO was led by a strong demand from qualified institutional buyers, who subscribed 26-fold their reserved quota. In comparison, retail investors' portion was subscribed two-fold.

Brokerages PL Capital and InCred Equities are bullish on the asset manager's growth potential on the back of strong retail flows into mutual funds, a focus on active equity funds, and room for earnings growth.

PL Capital initiated coverage on the stock with a 'buy' rating and a price target of 320 rupees per share, an upside of 20.3% from the issue price.

Canara Robeco is the first public debut by an Indian asset manager this year, adding to the growing list of financial services firms tapping the capital markets. ICICI Prudential AMC IICL.NS is expected to later this year.

Canara Robeco, which is a joint venture between India's Canara Bank CNBK.NS and the European arm of Japan's ORIX 8591.T, is the smallest among its listed peers in terms of revenue, which include HDFC AMC HDFA.NS, Nippon Life India AMC NIPF.NS and UTI AMC UTIA.NS.

Unlike its peers, the over-30-year-old asset management company's portfolio is largely focused on equities, with a predominantly retail investor base.

($1 = 88.3175 Indian rupees)

($1 = 87.8310 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)

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Rewrites throughout, adds analyst comments in paragraph 3

By Vivek Kumar M and Kashish Tandon

Oct 14 (Reuters) - LG Electronics India LGEL.NS soared 53.4% in its trading debut on Tuesday, overtaking its South Korean parent's market value, as investors bet big on its manufacturing and retail ambitions in the country, fuelled by a surge in consumer demand.

Policy support, including India's recent tax cuts on consumer goods such as refrigerators and televisions, and a dovish central bank stance are expected to lift near-term growth for appliance makers.

The listing - the strongest for a billion-dollar IPO in India since 2021 - coincides not only with India's festive season, when spending peaks, but also comes amid a busy primary market, where favourable policies are driving a fundraising boom set to surpass last year's record $20.5 billion.

Consumption is "where LG has gotten a better response compared to other IPOs that are currently in the market", said Deven Choksey, managing director at DRChoksey FinServ.

The blockbuster $1.3 billion offering opened for bids around the same time as the year's largest IPO Tata Capital TATC.NS and office working space major WeWork India's WEWO.NS listing.

However, while LG's IPO was fully subscribed within hours of opening, attracting bids worth nearly $50 billion, both Tata Capital and WeWork logged muted demand across investor segments.

On listing day, the former rose only 1.4%, while the latter fell 3%.

"After a long time, we're seeing a genuinely strong IPO in the consumer space — solid fundamentals, reasonable valuations and sector-leading growth prospects," said Dhiraj Relli, managing director and CEO of HDFC Securities.

The country's second-biggest appliance maker has begun construction of its $600 million-manufacturing facility - its third in India - with plans to convert India into a global export hub, hugely underpinning the investor enthusiasm.

LG Electronics India's shares closed 48.2% higher at 1,689.9 rupees, after listing at 1,710.10 rupees - well above the issue price of 1,140 rupees.

The company notched a valuation of around $13 billion, surpassing its $8.73 billion target and the roughly $9 billion market value of its parent LG Electronics 066570.KS.

The IPO was a pure offer-for-sale, with the parent offloading 15% of its stake as it defends its margins in its core TV and appliance businesses from fierce Chinese competition.

Qualified institutional buyers had bid 166.5-fold their quota, while non-institutional and retail investors had subscribed 22.4 times and 3.54 times, respectively.

Institutional investors are unlikely to be satisfied with the current 5 billion–6 billion rupee allocation, Relli said, adding that they will be forced to participate aggressively beyond the listing to achieve reasonable sizing.

At least five brokerages initiated coverage on the firm, with price targets between 1,700 to 1,800 rupees.

($1 = 88.7680 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon, Vivek Kumar, Chandini Monnappa and Mridula Kumar; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

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Add details from paragraph 3

By Vivek Kumar M and Yagnoseni Das

Oct 13 (Reuters) - Tata Capital TATC.NS, India's third-largest non-bank lender by revenue, was muted in its debut trade on Monday, valuing the firm at 1.4 trillion rupees ($15.78 billion), with investors seemingly not that keen on the first listing by the storied Tata Group in nearly two years.

Tata Capital's subdued debut has come in a busy IPO market, where analysts say investors appear to be favouring LG Electronics India's LGEL.NS $1.3-billion share sale as they expect stronger listing gains and near-term growth, helped by recent tax cuts.

As of 10:57 am, Tata Capital shares traded at 329.8 rupees, slightly higher than their offer price of 326 rupees. Its market capitalization at the current price trails Bajaj Finance BJFN.NS and Jio Financial Services >, which are valued at $72 billion and $22 billion, respectively.

Tata Capital's IPO was fairly priced but the lack of a major valuation discount to its listed peers was one of the key factors for the tepid response, said Ambareesh Baliga, an independent market analyst.

"This is probably the first time we have seen such muted demand for an IPO from Tata Group," Baliga said.

Strong interest in LG Electronics India's IPO and negative news surrounding the Tata Group, including boardroom turmoil, also weighed on demand for Tata Capital's share sale, said Dhiraj Relli, CEO at HDFC Securities.

Last week, while Tata Capital got bids worth $2.9 billion for its IPO, LG Electronics India's public issue, which opened a day later, received nearly $50 billion worth of bids.

LG will start trading on October 14, while WeWork India, which made its debut last week, fell as much as 5.2% as investors stayed wary of its steep valuation and governance risks.

The last IPO from the salt-to-software Tata Group was by engineering and technology services provider Tata Technologies TATE.NS in November 2023, which listed at a premium of 140% to its issue price.

($1 = 88.7420 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das and Vivek Kumar M in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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