TVS To Sell Rapido Stake Worth INR 288 Cr To Prosus & Accel

SUMMARY

While TVS Motor will sell 11,997 Series D CCPS of Rapido to Accel worth INR 143.96 Cr, it will divest another 11,998 Series D CCPS to Prosus for a sum of INR 144.97 Cr

The auto maker said that the deal, which aims to “monetise” its investment in Rapido, will be subject to regulatory approvals obtained by the two acquirers

This follows another investor and foodtech major Swiggy, last month, also approving the sale of its stake in Rapido to Westbridge and Prosus for about INR 2,400 Cr

Auto major TVS Motor today said that it has signed share purchase agreements with Accel and Prosus to sell its stake worth INR 287.9 Cr in ride-hailing unicorn Rapido.

In a filing with the exchanges, TVS Motor said that it will sell 11,997 Series D compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS) of Rapido to Accel India VIII (Mauritius) Limited for a consideration of INR 143.96 Cr. Additionally, it will divest another 11,998 Series D CCPS and ten equity shares to Prosus subsidiary, MIH Investments, for a sum of INR 144.97 Cr.

The auto maker said that the deal, which aims to “monetise” its investment in Rapido, will be subject to regulatory approvals obtained by the two acquirers.

“… This is to inform you that TVS Motor Company… has entered into share purchase agreements… each with Accel India VIII (Mauritius) Limited for the sale of 11,997 number of Series D CCPS; and MIH Investments One B.V for the sale of 10 number of equity shares and 11,988 number of Series D CCPS, held by the Company in Roppen Transportation Services…,” read the filing.

Nevertheless, the auto giant did not explicitly specify whether it has completely exited the ride hailing startup.

TVS Motor is the second investor to dump its stake in Rapido in the past month. In October, another investor and foodtech major Swiggy also approved the sale of its stake in the bike-taxi startup to Westbridge and Prosus for about INR 2,400 Cr.

This comes a couple of months after reports first surfaced that the Dutch investor was in talks to acquire stakes worth $200 Mn in Rapido at a valuation of up to $2.7 Bn, more than double than its last valuation of $1.1 Bn. Notably, the bike taxi giant, earlier this year, had received approval from its shareholders to raise INR 250 Cr from Prosus.

The stake sale comes as Rapido has aggressively scaled up its play in the past year. The company forayed into food delivery earlier this year, followed by venturing into the travel tech space in partnership with multiple online travel aggregators.

Parallely, it has also strengthened its position in India’s ride-hailing market. Even Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that Rapido had overtaken Ola to emerge as Uber’s toughest competitor in India.

Meanwhile, on the financial front, Rapido trimmed its losses by more than 45% to INR 370 Cr in the fiscal year 2023-24 (FY24) from INR 675 Cr a fiscal year earlier. Its revenue also rose 1.5X to INR 648.1 Cr in the fiscal under review from INR 443 Cr in FY23.