Jhunjhunwala-backed Baazar Style Retail likely to launch its IPO next week

Jhunjhunwala-backed Baazar Style Retail may launch its initial public offering (IPO) in the last week of August or early September, said some media reports. The Kolkata-based retail chain is likely to share official communication later this week. Price Band for the issue is likely to be declared next week.
 

As per the DRHP of Bazaar Style Retail, seasoned Dalal Street investor Rekha Rakesh Jhunjhuwala is looking to sell 27.23 lakh equity shares in the IPO. She owned 54,46,240 equity shares or 7.8 per cent stake in the retail chain, suggesting the DRHP of the company.
 

The company recently raised Rs 37 crore through a pre-IPO earlier this month, in consultation with lead managers to the upcoming issue. In this fund raising round institutional investors including Volrado Ventures Partners Fund II picked up 9,56,072 shares at Rs 387 apiece.
 

According to the DRHP filed in March 2024, the public issue with a face value of Rs 5 per equity share is a mix of a fresh issue of up to Rs 185 crore and an offer of sale of up to 1.68 crore equity shares by the promoter group and other selling shareholders. The offer includes a reservation for subscriptions by eligible employees.
 

With the latest tranche of fundraising, IPO-bound player has trimmed its fresh issue size to Rs 148 crore from Rs 185 crore. Baazar Style Retail is a value fashion retailer with the largest retail footprint in Eastern India. The company claims to have a leadership position in West Bengal and Odisha's organized value retail market.
 

Baazar Style Retail was incorporated in 2014 and has scaled itself to 153 stores spread across over 1.39 million square feet located in 140 cities in 9 states as of 31 December, 2023. It is the fastest growing value retailer between 2017 to 2023, in terms of both store count and revenue from operations, with the highest Ebitda margin for FY23, said a Technopak report.
 

It has developed its brand ‘Style Bazaar’ over the years, through a wide range of products, which has resulted in strong customer loyalty and recognition. Axis Capital, Intensive Fiscal Services, and JM Financial are the book-running lead managers, and Link Intime India is the registrar of the issue.
 

Bazaar Style Retail reported a profit of Rs 5.10 crore in the fiscal year 2023, with a revenue from operations coming in at Rs Rs 787.90 crore. The company had clocked a net loss of Rs 8.091 crore in the year-ago period, where its revenue from operations stood at Rs 551.12 crore.
 

Besides West Bengal Orissa, Bazaar Style Retail is strong footprint in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. There were 153 locations run by the firm as of December 31, 2023. The book-running lead managers to the issue are Axis Capital, Intensive Fiscal Services, and JM Financial.