Exclusive interview on “Equirus plays a very important part at every step of the IPO process, from choosing the best company to listing it successfully.

by Bhavesh A Shah, Managing Director – Consumer & Healthcare Banking, EQUIRUS

1. Details about Equirus and Dreamfolks Limited’s recent IPO closed
Equirus is a full-service investment bank straddling private equity funding, M&A, IPO, and debt funding. Equirus is also into Institutional Equities, Wealth Management, Portfolio Management, and Insurance Broking.
DreamFolks is India’s largest airport service aggregator platform.
Offer size: Rs 5,621 Mn
Offer for Sale (OFS) up to 17.2 Mn Equity Shares
Left Lead Book Running Lead Manager: Equirus Capital

2. What is your take on the startup funding? Is it an aberration or does it have a deeper impact?
Start-up funding has a very important role to play in seeding and nurturing growing businesses and entrepreneurship. In India, since 2010, the new age companies have raised over USD 125 bn in equity funding. Startup funding has a very deep impact on the overall economy by giving the requisite financial and strategic legs to future businesses. Currently, the trend has changed to fund businesses that are profitable or have a clear path to profitability.

3. Role of Equirus in closing IPO deals
Right from the identification of the right company to a successful listing, Equirus tends to play a very vital role in the entire IPO process. Positioning the company rightly and driving the entire process of regulatory approvals to get the right investors and valuations, Equirus endeavors to give the right advice to the client.

4. How does Equirus identify the company and the ideation for the whole IPO process
The whole process of identifying the company is a very interesting one. There is a lot of research and understanding of the sectoral and economic trends that go into screening the companies and choosing the right ones that are fit for a fund-raising exercise – PE, M&A, or IPO. We then leverage our network to connect with the companies. We spend a good time with companies in doing background checks and understanding their business models. The basis that, we give the right advice as to what the company should be doing – PE, IPO, or even M&A. Given that Equirus is a full-service investment bank, we can give product-agnostic advice to the company – which is advice in the interest of the Company. Thereafter, we spend a considerable amount of time on diligence and getting the positioning of the company right. We also help the company partner with lawyers and other players in the ecosystem as may be needed as per the transaction. For many, the transaction is the first time in the company’s lifetime. We handhold the management team through the entire process and the regulatory requirements. The phase of marketing the deal is the most interesting thereafter wherein we prepare the company thoroughly for the investor meetings so that the investors are able to assess the true value of the business. Once we start getting traction from the investors and depending upon the market conditions, we then launch the transaction. Post the transaction, we hand hold the company through continuous coverage and extend our relationship to beyond to see what more can be done to add value.