Awfis Ropes In Nivia Sports Executive Rajesh Kharabanda To Its Board

Coworking Space Provider Awfis has roped in Rajesh Kharabanda as a non-executive, non-independent director following board’s approval.

“The approval of the shareholders of the company was sought by postal ballot for the appointment of Mr. Rajesh Kharabanda as a non-executive non-independent director on the Board of the company, liable to retire by rotation,” Awfis said in an exchange filing.

Kharabanda heads the homegrown sports brand Nivia as managing director of Freewill Sports Private Limited, which is Nivia’s parent company. He has around 37 years of experience in the sports industry. Besides, he serves as chairman of the Sports Goods Manufacturers & Exporters Association at Jalandhar.

Additionally, Kharabanda holds directorships in six other companies.

Apart from this appointment, Awfis has also made changes to its Articles of Association (AoA) to grant specific rights to certain shareholders.

“Pursuant to the aforesaid amendment, the company has inserted Part-B into the Articles of Association to include limited special rights for certain shareholders,” the filing said.

As part of these changes to the AoA, Awfis stakeholders, including Peak XV Partners and the New Investor Group, can nominate one director each as long as they hold at least 5% of the fully diluted share capital.

Additionally, Bisque Limited and Link Investment Trust can together nominate one director as long as they own 5% of the fully diluted equity in Awfis.

Not to mention, Awfis’s promoter, founder, and CEO Amit Ramani is allowed to nominate two directors if he owns 11% or more of the fully diluted share capital. If his share capital is at or above the 5% mark, he is allowed to nominate only one director.

Founded in 2015 by Amit Ramani, Awfis claims to be the largest flexible space operator in India with 181 centres, around 1.1 Lakh seats and about 5.6 Mn square feet of chargeable area, as of March 31, 2024.

While the startup started as a coworking network, it has since diversified into a tech-enabled workspace solutions platform, catering to enterprises, freelancers, startups and SMEs.

The development follows Awfis’s shares hitting 20% upper circuit earlier this month on July 18. 

It made its stock market debut on May 30 with shares listing at a premium of 12.8% on the BSE.

Its IPO comprised a fresh issue of shares worth INR 128 Cr besides an Offer For Sale component of up to 1.23 shares. 

Awfis first turned profitable in the March quarter (Q4) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), reporting a profit after tax (PAT) of INR 1.4 Cr on an operating revenue of INR 232.3 Cr. 

Notably, earlier this month Ramani told Inc42 that the startup expects its top line to surpass the INR 1,100 Cr mark in FY25.

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