Hyundai picks JP Morgan, Citi and HSBC as advisors for mega IPO of India arm

South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor has picked investment banks JP Morgan, Citi and HSBC for now as advisors for the proposed IPO of its India unit, which is planning to raise between $3 billion to $3.5 bilion, multiple industry sources in the know told Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.

A potential filing of the draft papers of this mega deal in the works is likely by June 2024 and if the listing plans fructify, it would be the biggest ever IPO on the Indian bourses. Prior to this, the $2.7-billion listing of LIC in 2022 was India’s biggest IPO.

More i-banks for the Hyundai IPO may be added at a later stage if required, these sources added.

Moneycontrol has sent email queries to Hyundai, India’s second-largest seller of passenger vehicles in 2023 after Maruti Suzuki India, Citi and HSBC, but could not elicit an immediate comment from the firms. This article will be updated as soon as we hear from them. JP Morgan declined to comment.

The Economic Times was the first to report the listing plans of Hyundai’s India operations on February 5.

Responding to media reports on the India listing plans, Hyundai Motor Co had issued an official statement to the Korean Stock Exchange on February 7. Hyundai said that as a global company, it is constantly reviewing various activities, including listing overseas subsidiaries, to increase corporate value, but nothing has been confirmed to date.

India is a significant market that accounted for around 13 percent of Hyundai’s global sales in 2023. i20, Verna, Creta, Aura and Tucson are some of the firm’s car models in the Indian market.

The India unit clocked the highest-ever domestic sales in 2023, crossing the six-lakh mark. It sold 6,02,111 units, a nine percent increase over the previous year’s 5,52,511 units. On the export front, the Indian arm’s performance rose by 10 percent, as it shipped 1,63,675 units compared to 1,48,300 units on a year-on-year basis.

Earlier, in an exclusive interview with Moneycontrol, Udhay Furtado, Co-Head, ECM ( Equity Capital Markets) at Citi indicated that big, global brands would now be tempted to list in India as the market had matured and evolved and was equipped with strong domestic financing capability.

The other big IPO brewing in the Indian auto sector is from Softbank and Temasek-backed Ola Electric. The deal would set a precedent as this is the first attempt at a public listing by an Indian EV (electric vehicle) firm.