delhivery: Aim to be thoughtful towards capital, trust shown by investors: Delhivery CEO Sahil Barua

New Delhi: Sahil Barua, founder and CEO of new-age logistics firm Delhivery, said in his pre-listing speech the company’s aim will be to be ‘thoughtful and patient towards the capital and trust’ given by investors.

The Delhivery stock
made its debut on bourses on Tuesday and started trading on BSE at Rs 493 per share, up 1.2% from its IPO issue price of Rs 487 per share. While at NSE, it began trading at Rs 495.2 apiece, up 1.7%. At the time of writing this article, Delhivery stock was trading at Rs 544.75 on BSE, a jump of more than 10%.

“There has been a lot of talk about the markets being choppy. But the way I look at it is at 10 AM when the bill rings, post that the logistics market is still going to be a $200 billion market,” Barua said. “Delhivery is still going to be nearly a billion dollars in revenue. We’re still going to be breaking even and getting better over years. We’re still going to be the largest and most integrated logistics company in the country. We’ll still have over $800 million of cash on our balance sheet. And we will have some of the best investors in the world on our side.”

ET had reported on May 6 saying the company clocked revenue from operations of Rs 5,170 crore, or close to $700 million, in the nine months of FY22 ending in December 2021 and it is estimated to close the financial year 2022 with $1 billion of revenue.

“Many thanks to our early investors and many thanks to the investors who backed us as part of this issue. We are grateful for your confidence and support. We appreciate the responsibilities placed on us,” Barua added in his short speech before Delhivery’s shares started trading on BSE and NSE.

Ahead of the IPO, Barua told ETtech that the company
was not worried about valuations in the short- term as markets eventually value businesses correctly in the long-term.

He was talking about how investors may have priced the company if it had listed last year amid the euphoria in India’s startup ecosystem and overall capital markets.

“(Delhivery) has reached a stage in its evolution that gives us confidence…We have a mature business model. And we are on track to achieve $1 billion in revenue,” Barua told ETtech earlier this month.

Delhivery’s initial share sale offer was subscribed 1.63 times. Delhivery priced its IPO at around $5 billion valuation after markets turned choppy which also forced the company to reduce its offer size to Rs 5,235 crore compared to its initial plan of a Rs 7,460 crore public issue.

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