By Chris Thomas and Hritam Mukherjee
(Reuters) -India’s Bluestone Jewellery and Lifestyle [BLUT.NS] is seeking a valuation of at least 120 billion rupees ($1.41 billion) in an initial public offering, two sources said on Thursday.
The jeweller is seeking to sell new shares worth 10 billion rupees, while existing shareholders, including Accel India and Kalaari Capital, are looking to sell 24 million shares, draft papers showed.
Overall, the IPO’s size would be about 30 billion rupees, said the sources, who declined to be identified as the information is not public.
Bluestone did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The company, which sells diamond, gold, platinum and studded jewellery, competes with rivals such as Titan, Kalyan Jewellers and Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri among others in the world’s second-largest market for gold jewellery after China.
Indian jewellery market was estimated at $85.52 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow 5.7% annually to 2030, according to research firm Grand View Research.
Meanwhile, India’s capital market is booming, with over 300 companies already having raised $17.5 billion so far in 2024 – more than double the amount raised last year – data compiled by LSEG showed.
The IPO also comes at a time when urban consumption is slowing amid sticky inflation, potentially clouding the growth view for a company like Bluestone, whose business is built on discretionary products such as jewellery, said Mahesh Ojha, assistant vice president of research and business development at Hensex Securities.
The company plans to use the IPO proceeds to fund its working capital requirements.
Bluestone’s annual loss narrowed to 1.42 billion rupees in the fiscal year ended March 2024 from 1.67 billion rupees a year earlier. Meanwhile, its revenue from operations jumped over 64% to 12.66 billion rupees from a year earlier.
($1 = 84.8460 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Chris Thomas and Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman, Eileen Soreng and Anil D’Silva)
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