Pushed back by demonetisation, ShopClues defers its IPO plan

Blaming the government's scrapping of high-value bank notes for its decision, internet marketplace ShopClues has deferred its plans for a public listing of its shares to 2018. After it raised money a year ago, the company had declared that it would file for an initial public offering (IPO) of its shares on Nasdaq by September 2017.

Now it is targeting the first quarter of 2018 as a realistic timeline for the IPO and will seek to raise funds meanwhile. The development presents a setback for Indian ecommerce companies that remain unsure of tapping equity markets despite their tremendous growth spurts. For investors, IPOs by portfolio companies offer them an opportunity to sell their investments at a profit.

But IPOs have mostly eluded domestic internet companies, many of them still making heavy losses. The last big share listing by an Indian ecommerce firm was of Infibeam in April 2016. Only three other Indian internet companies have opted for IPOs over the past decade. They are Info Edge in 2006, MakeMyTrip in 2010, and JustDial in 2013. Flipkart, India's largest online marketplace, has declared its intentions to go for an IPO but hasn't specified a time yet.

While it waits to make its equity market debut, ShopClues plans to raise between $25 to $30 million (Rs 170 to Rs 204 crores) from investors this year, it is understood. In January 2016, the company had claimed that the undisclosed amount it secured from Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC , Tiger Global Management and Nexus Venture Partners would be its last fun draise and that it would turn profitable this year. For its IPO, ShopClues began talks with bankers Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Citibank, among others.