



Aye Finance to test IPO market even as non-bank peers prefer to wait
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Aye Finance Ltd is headed for a public market debut at a valuation below its last funding round, becoming the first non-bank lender to test the appetite after months of sector-wide delays. The venture capital-backed microlender has set a price band of ₹122-129 per share for its initial public offering (IPO), valuing the company at approximately ₹3,200 crore at the upper end.
The pricing places the firm's valuation slightly below that of its 2025 series G round, its management told Mint, without sharing details. "While we started actively working on the IPO around July-August, the markets have been choppy, particularly for the financial segment. Our merchant bankers advised us to wait, which stretched the timeline, but we are now moving ahead as our IPO approval expires in April," Aye Finance's managing director Sanjay Sharma said.
Several non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) were eyeing IPOs for months. These included Veritas Finance Ltd, Hero FinCorp, SK Finance, Belstar Microfinance, Avanse Financial and Credila Financial Services. But most of these offers were delayed amid sectoral pain and rising bad loans.
"Asset quality pressures have continued for India's retail non-bank financial companies as the seasoning impact of the earlier fast-paced growth plays out," said a January report by Icra Ltd. It added that NBFCs have accelerated technical write-offs, banking on their adequate provisions and capital to absorb higher credit costs on balance sheets. Icra expects net profitability of NBFCs to moderate in fiscal 2025-26, with credit costs likely to remain elevated.
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