(Fixes spelling of “eyewear” in headline)
Reuters) -Lenskart Solutions, India’s biggest eyewear retailer, is seeking a valuation of about 695 billion rupees ($7.91 billion) through its initial public offering, according to Reuters calculations based on its price band announced Monday.
The Gurgaon-based company has set a price band of 382-402 rupees ($4.35 to $4.57) per share for its IPO, a public filing showed. At the upper end of the price band, the IPO is expected to raise about 72.78 billion rupees.
The IPO will be open for bids from October 31 to November 4 and anchor investors will submit bids on October 30.
The share sale comes at a time when India’s IPO market is poised to top last year’s record high of $20.5 billion, with up to $8 billion worth of offerings anticipated in the final quarter of 2025.
Lenskart is operating in a market projected to grow at a double-digit pace over the next five years. Its promoters include Japan’s SoftBank, Mumbai-based private equity firm Kedaara Capital Advisors and Singapore state investor Temasek.
The firm, which started operations in 2010 as an online business, was valued at $6.1 billion as of September 10, according to data from Tracxn.
The company is issuing fresh shares worth 21.5 billion rupees in the offering, while existing investors including its founders, SoftBank and Temasek are selling about 128 million shares, according to an updated prospectus released Saturday.
Analysts at Jefferies expect India’s eyewear demand to surge, driven by rising vision issues, deeper market penetration, and expanding health insurance.
Lenskart operates 2,067 stores in India and 656 overseas.
($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Anuran Sadhu, Urvi Dugar and Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler and Diane Craft)
