The firm’s board approved the change at its annual general meeting (AGM) last week, and the firm will change its name to Ather Energy Limited, from Ather Energy Private Limited earlier, a person in the know told ET. They confirmed that the firm had filed documents related to the government’s Registrar of Companies (RoC).
Ather is also finalising plans to raise $75-90 million (about Rs 750 crore) in primary funding from new and existing investors, with the funding round likely to be led by an existing investor, which might value the firm between $850 million and $1 billion, ET had reported on April 23.
News of the conversion into a public limited entity was first broken by news portal Inc42.
The company has reportedly been engaging with investment banks for a potential initial public offering (IPO) sometime next year and picked HSBC, JPMorgan, and Nomura, among others, to handle its listing process, Bloomberg had reported on March 5.
Meanwhile, the company has seen one of its earliest backers and biggest investors, Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal, sell his remaining 7.5% stake in the company, ET had reported on June 7. Bansal sold a 2.2% stake to two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp for Rs 124 crore and the rest to Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath.
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After the latest stake purchase, Hero MotoCorp, the largest shareholder in Ather Energy, holds about 40% of its shareholding.In May, the firm had raised Rs 286 crore ($34 million) from its founders and Stride Ventures in a mix of debt and equity funding.
In a filing this month, Hero MotoCorp said Ather’s turnover stood at Rs 1,753 crore in FY24, 1.7% lower than the firm’s operating revenue of Rs 1,784 crore in FY23. Hero MotoCorp did not report any profit or loss figure for FY24; in FY23, Ather had posted a net loss of Rs 864 crore.
