IPO-Bound Delhivery Issues 1.68 Cr Bonus Shares; Expands ESOP Pool By INR 2.84 Cr

Logistics and supply chain startup Delhivery has issued bonus shares to shareholders ahead of filing its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP). The startup held an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on September 29, where it decided to allot fully paid up 1.68 Cr bonus shares worth INR 10, to equity shareholders in the ratio of 9:1.

According to Delhivery’s regulatory filings, as accessed by Inc42, the logistics unicorn has allotted 1,68,46,803 shares of INR 10 each fully paid up — taking the total number of shares from 18,71,868 to 1,87,18,670 bonus shares, which will be allotted to 90 existing equity shareholders of the company. 

Founder Sahil Barua has been allotted 12.29 Lakh bonus shares — highest among the founders of the startup, while Times Internet and CPPIB were allotted 28.53 Lakh and 23.80 Lakh shares respectively — highest among its investors.

Ahead of its $1 Bn-IPO, the EGM also passed a resolution to expand the employee stock option plans (ESOP) pool. It will be allotting 9,545 shares (INR 2,895 each) worth INR 2.84 Cr to 12 of its employees. The startup has previously allotted 11,614 shares worth $126.6K to its employees in 2019.

Founded in 2011 by Mohit Tandon, Sahil Barua, Bhavesh Manglani, Kapil Bharati and Suraj Saharan, Delhivery offers several logistics services, including express parcel transportation, LTL and FTL freight, reverse logistics, cross-border, B2B & B2C warehousing and technology services.

The startup claims to have over 10,000 direct customers and has completed nearly 850 Mn transactions since its inception. In FY2021, the logistics unicorn generated annual revenue of INR 3,700 Cr. 

In an interview in June this year, Barua confirmed that the startup has a cash balance of around $550 Mn, and has put in place a sub-committee for its IPO and other M&A activities back in January 2021. Of its five founders, Tandon and Mangalani exited the IPO-bound startup in March 2021.

The bonus share issue comes at the heels of Addition’s investment of INR 558 Cr ($125 Mn) in the logistic startup as part of its Series I round, which Inc42 had exclusively reported. It issued 146,961 Series I compulsorily convertible preference shares for INR 37,900 per share. In August 2021, global logistic startup FedEx entered into a long-term commercial pact with Delhivery with a $100 Mn investment. Delhivery was then valued at $3 Bn.

In 2019, the startup entered the unicorn club after raising $413 Mn from SoftBank and other investors. Other notable investors of Delhivery include Fidelity, GIC, Steadview Capital, The Carlyle Group, Nexus Venture Partners, Tiger Global, among others.

Recently, IPO-bound hospitality giant OYO also issued 4,333 bonus equity shares to 12 equity shareholders at a face value of INR 10. The startup filed its DRHP for INR 8,340 Cr IPO on October 1, 2021.