PE investors take exit from Micromax as its valuation stumbled by 93%

Home-grown smartphone maker Micromax, once a top-selling brand in the country, has been witnessing the continuous decline in revenue as well as valuation.

In the last four years, the company has witnessed over 93% decline in valuation to Rs 1,357 crore from Rs 21,000 crore in 2015.

This has led to exits of private equity (PE) investors.

According to RoC filings, TA Associates and Sandstone Investment have sold their stakes, close to 6.9% for Rs 93.65 crore to promoters, whose holding will increase to 85 from 78.1%.

At present, Micromax promoters include Vikas Jain, Rahul Sharma, Sumeet Kumar and Rajesh Agarwal, hold about 19.57% each.

The company has witnessed a continuous decline in revenue. In 2014-15, Micromax posted revenue of Rs 11, 041 crore, which further declined to Rs 4,345 crore in 2017-18.

In the same period, the net profit of the company slipped almost 97% to Rs 103 crore from Rs 3,362 crore.

Indian handset maker, founded in 2000, dominated the local market with higher sales number. It gained the early market share through bits and pieces of innovations.

Micromax is reported to have first launched a phone with 30-day battery life, dual-SIM phones and phones with Qwerty keypads in a lower price range.

Though, it could not continue with innovations and the early gains in the market once Chinese smartphone makers entered the market.

Micromax failed to grasp the fundamental market shifts in the India handset market.

In 2016-17, Micromax lost focus in the market by going after 3G phone market when everybody was after the next-generation phone market.

Whereas Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo, through an aggressive approach with 4G devices made significant headway Indian market. While Xiaomi and Samsung emerged as leaders in India,

Micromax kept witnessing a downfall on the growth front.

Now, Chinese smartphone makers control close to 80% of the Indian smartphone market.

The market share of Micromax’s has gone down to just 1 per cent, as per IDC report. All this makes it difficult for the home-grown brand to get back to its peak, it achieved in 2010.

Micromax is now attempting to stay relevant by partnering with other brands.

In July, Micromax, to push its revenue, had inked partnership deal with Chinese smartphone leader Huawei, which claims to have around 3% smartphone market share in the country.