Exclusive: Sachin Bansal’s Navi gears up for IPO, converts into public entity

Financial services company Navi Technologies has converted into a public entity, according to the company’s regulatory filings. Started in December 2018 by former Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal, Navi is one of the few companies to go public within four years of its inception.

Navi has passed a special resolution to convert the company from private to a public limited entity and rename it to Navi Technologies Limited, regulatory filings show. The move will pave the way for Navi to float an Initial Public Offer (IPO) soon.

While the quantum of the IPO is not known yet, the company has appointed Bank of America, Axis Capital, ICICI Securities and Edelweiss as the lead book-running managers for the offer according to Entrackr sources. 

Queries sent to Navi didn’t elicit any immediate response. We will update the story as and when the company responds. MoneyControl had reported about Navi's IPO plan in December.

Navi is a full-stack financial service provider which offers personal, home, loan against property among other offerings and going public will pave the way for it to accept public deposits and elevate its status as an investment platform as well. At present, it has a disbursal rate of about Rs 2,000 crore and aspires to build a 15,000 crore worth loan book in the next 18 months.

Navi has also amended its MoA (Memorandum of Articles) and AoA (Articles of Association) to effect the change of status. It also passed a special resolution to amend the limits under section 186 of the Companies Act to authorise the board to give any loan to any person or corporation.

Importantly, the board has prescribed that the aggregate limit for all of the above combined shall not exceed a sum of Rs 10,000 crores.

Apart from lending, Navi also has insurance, share broking and asset management products. The company’s scale has grown at a scorching pace during FY21. It grew its revenues nearly four-fold to a little over Rs 779 crore in FY21, as compared to Rs 199 crore in FY20. Navi ​​generated a profit of Rs 71.2 crore during FY21 against a loss of Rs 8.07 crore in FY20.

With this move, Navi would be the third major company from the financial service segment to go IPO. PolicyBazaar and Paytm had made their debut on stock exchanges in the previous calendar year (2021). As per sources, the company is targeting to file a Draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) in the summer.