Foxconn subsidiary Bharat FIH scraps plan for ₹5,000 cr IPO

livemint.com:

₹5,000 crore initial public offer for which it had received the markets regulator’s go ahead in June last year, according to three people familiar with the development. The company which assembles smartphones for Apple and Xiaomi in India has taken the decision owing largely to weak smartphone market conditions and changes in internal strategy, as per two of the three people who spoke to Mint on the condition of anonymity. “The IPO in its current form won’t be taken forward.

That decision has been taken. They can take a relook at it in the next financial year or later," said an industry executive who is aware of the details of the discussions, asking not to be named. A second senior industry executive pointed to the changing smartphone market conditions where demand had slowed and the overall market had contracted in 2022 compared to 2021, which saw a relative growth versus the year before.

“I would say that not just the market conditions, there are several other factors for the IPO to have been stalled. The business in India is evolving and given the latest developments, the marketing plan has to incorporate it. The document filed (with Sebi) is also quite dated," said a banker with knowledge of the company’s plan.

A third executive said that the company was expanding its presence in the country with collective investments of nearly $1.5 billion in Karnataka and Telangana where it will set up several plants aimed at increasing local manufacturing. The Taiwanese major was reported to have won contracts for making AirPods in India, besides iPhones which it already assembles locally. Bharat FIH said in its standalone financial statement that the company had been expanding its business into industries other than mobile