Network18 Group’s e-commerce firm HomeShop18 would be among the first e-commerce firms in India to hit the capital market in the US.
While companies such as Flipkart and Snapdeal are conducting their own due diligence, Homeshop18 has already filed for a $75-million (₹460 crore) IPO on Nasdaq via its venture NW18 HSN Holdings. The issue has not been priced yet.
With this, Homeshop18, which operates a television home shopping network and also runs an online marketplace, becomes the fourth Indian Internet firm to list on Nasdaq after Rediff, Sify and MakeMyTrip.
The company is backed by PE firm SAIF Partners, OCP Asia and South Korea’s GS Home Shopping.
The company, that deliver products at customers’ doorsteps in over 3,000 towns and cities across India, will partly use the proceeds of the IPO to purchase the equity interest in its Indian subsidiary, currently held by Network18, within 45 days of the completion of the offering, according to the filing with the Nasdaq. The balance amount will be used to make acquisitions or strategic investments.
Besides this, it plans to use a portion of these proceeds to repay all its outstanding borrowings which stood at $4.3 million as of September 30, 2013 obtained from Ratnakar Bank Ltd.
The company has short-term secured borrowings of ₹8.8 crore ($1.4 million) which has been used to meet its working capital requirements and pay operating expenses. It also has outstanding long-term borrowings of ₹18.1 crore as of September 2013.
The company’s operating revenues for FY13 stood at $40.7 million, up 66.4 per cent over the previous year.
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