Indian smartphone maker Micromax is planning to raise $500m through a stock market listing during its financial year beginning in April this year.
The company has sought ‘requests for proposal’ from various bankers and has shortlisted US based Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to manage the IPO issue, reported the Economic Times.
The newspaper reported that that the company will sell a minority stake during the IPO issue.
The funding is expected to bring the smartphone maker to a total valuation of 14 times its operating profit.
India’s smartphone market grew by 64% in the September quarter where Samsung acquired 25% of the market share, followed by Micromax with 20% of the market share, according to Counterpoint Research as reported by Reuters.
Micromax is backed by TA Associates and Sequoia Capital, and in 2010 it had hired banks to raise $150m for an IPO issue, but dropped the plan due to poor market sentiment.
Back in March 2014, one of the company co-founders, Vikas Jain, said that Micromax was looking to revive its public offer plans if a stable government took charge.
Economic Times cited a Micromax spokesperson as saying: "As a company policy, we do not comment on market speculation."
According to experts the company’s value might surge up to $10bn, which is five times its revenue with its overseas expansion.
