CCI approves Warburg Pincus to invest in Ola parent company

The Competition Commission of India has now approved private equity fund Warburg Pincus to invest in Bhavish led Ola parent company 'ANI Technologies'.

The competition regulator said in two separate statements on Friday that it has approved“acquisition of shares by Plum Wood Investment and voting rights by Bhavish Aggarwal in ANI Technologies Private Limited", and “acquisition of shares by MacRitchie Investments and Fort Canning Investments; and voting rights by Mr. Bhavish Aggarwal in ANI Technologies Private Limited".

Under the brand name 'Ola,' ANI Technologies Private Limited provides taxi and auto-rickshaw aggregation services. The online platform currently offers cab-hailing services in India, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited is a subsidiary of the investment company MacRitchie. Temasek is a Singapore-based investment firm. Fort Canning, on the other hand, is an investment holding company.

Even Plum Wood is also a holding company for investments. Plum Wood's shareholders include a number of private equity funds managed by Warburg Pincus LLC (Warburg Pincus). Warburg Pincus is headquartered in New York, New York, USA. It serves as a manager for a number of private equity funds.

The first Indian cab aggregator company Ola was founded in 2011 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati. He is currently the executive director of parent company ANI as well as the CEO of Ola.

Ola has also expanded into three international markets: Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. It has established operations in seven cities across Australia. It claims to have 40,000 drivers registered on its app in Australia. Ola operates in over 250 cities in India.

Ola has raised approximately $4.3 billion in total funding across 26 rounds. This includes debt financing as well as the secondary market. When the pandemic hit hard and the nationwide lockdown was announced last year, the company's revenues dropped by nearly 95 percent. As a result of Vanguard marking down the value of its holding, revenues fell to $3.3 billion. According to the reports, Vanguard Group and T Rowe Price have reduced their revenue for 2019-20.

According to data available until July 10, 2021, Ola is funded by 48 investors, with 23 serving as lead investors. The most recent investors are ARK Ola Pre IPO Private Investment Trust and Hussam Khoury.

Prior to the IPO, Temasek, Warburg Pincus' Plum Wood, and the company's founder, Bhavish Aggarwal invested 500 million (about Rs 3,733 crore), Ola's most recent fundraising round on July 9, 2021. This is among the largest investments in the Indian consumer internet space by these funds.

However, the company did not provide a timetable for its proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Ola has previously mentioned a possible listing. An IPO will allow Ola investors such as SoftBank, Tiger Global, and Steadview Capital to exit or sell a portion of their stake in the company, allowing them to return funds to their shareholders.

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