delhivery: Aim to be thoughtful towards the capital and 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 on Tuesday that the company aims to be “thoughtful and patient towards the capital and trust” shown by investors.

Delhivery
made its debut on the public bourses on Tuesday and started trading on BSE at Rs 493 a share, up 1.2% from its IPO issue price of Rs 487. On NSE, it began trading at Rs 495.2 apiece, up 1.7%. At 3 pm, Delhivery stock was trading at around Rs 535, up about 10%.

“There has been a lot of talk about the markets being choppy. But the way I look at it is that after the bell rings at 10 am, logistics is still going to be a $200 billion market,” Barua said. “Delhivery is still going to be [earning] 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 that the company clocked revenue from operations of Rs 5,170 crore, or close to $700 million, in the nine months of FY22 ending December 2021 and is projected to close the financial year 2022 with $1 billion in 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 a 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 us earlier this month.

Delhivery’s IPO, held from May 11 to 13, was subscribed 1.63 times. It had earlier reduced the size of the IPO from Rs 7,460 crore to Rs 5,235 crore after markets turned choppy towards the end of 2021.

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