IPO Alert: Lava International files papers for a public listing

The global smartphone industry has been growing steadily both in market size, as well as in terms of brands and models.

Worldwide, total smartphone shipments are projected to grow to around 1.48 billion units by 2023. It is estimated that 46.45% of the world’s population owned smartphones at the end of 2020.

India is the second-largest market for smartphones by volume, after China. The country’s mobile phone subscription market is projected to grow from 1.1 billion in fiscal 2021 to 1.3 billion by fiscal 2026, representing a CAGR of 3%.

A key reason behind the huge smartphone demand in India is ease to access to mobile data. Mobile data rates in the country are considered to be the cheapest in the world, which creates a lot of opportunities for foreign companies to enter India.

Lava International Ltd recently filed a draft paper with the Securities and Exchange Board of India to raise funds via an initial public offering. The offer comprises a fresh issue of shares worth ₹5 billion and an offer for sale of up to 43.73 million shares by existing shareholders and promoters.

The company plans to use ₹1 billion of the net proceeds for marketing and brand-building activities. It will use ₹1.5 billion for funding acquisitions and other strategic initiatives and deploy another ₹1.5 billion for investments in material subsidiaries for funding working capital requirements.

Mobile Handset

Lava is a leading end-to-end focused mobile handset and mobile handset solutions company based in India, with operations in a number of countries. The company ranks third in the country in terms of market share — 13.4%.

The Noida, Uttar-Pradesh-based company designs, manufactures, markets, distributes, and services mobile handsets, tablets, and other electronics accessories under the LAVA and XOLO brands, besides providing value-added software services.

Recently, Lava signed a partnership license agreement with Lenovo, which entitles it to distribute its mobile handsets under the Motorola brand in India and overseas. The company also inked a multi-year contract with HMD for an end-to-end design.

Key Numbers

In fiscal 2021, the company’s revenue from operations stood at ₹55.1 billion, against ₹52.6 billion a year ago. Net profit for the year was ₹1.72 billion, versus ₹1.07 billion last year.

Meanwhile, the emergence of modern trade channels like online retailers might adversely affect Lava’s pricing power. And, that would result in temporary loss of retail shelf space and sales disruption, impacting its financial performance negatively.