Info Edge advances 4%, hits record high on report Policybazaar mulls IPO

Shares of Info Edge (India) hit a record high of Rs 3,238, up 4 per cent on the BSE, on Monday on reports that the Policybazaar plans to raise $150 million (around Rs 1,100 crore) as buffer capital in Q3 of this fiscal. In separate news Policybazaar is planning to have an initial public offering (IPO) with valuation worth $3.5 billion.

Policybazaar, which counts SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund, Tiger Global Management and Tencent Holdings Ltd. among its largest backers, may become the first of India’s digital-era upstarts to go public, the Economic Times report suggested.

Info Edge (India) is among the leading internet companies in India. The company has made significant strategic investments into emerging internet companies – zomato.com, meritnation.com, policybazaar.com, Canvera.com, happily unmarried.com.

If Policybazaar gets the intended value it could add Rs 190 share to the Info Edge's valuation, according to the brokerage firm ICICI Securities.

Meanwhile, on June 22, 2020, the board of directors of the company had approved raising of funds through issue of equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each of the company by way of qualified institutional placement (QIP) to eligible qualified institutional buyers for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 1,875 crore.

In the past one month, the stock outperformed the market by gaining 20 per cent, as against 7.5 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Info Edge runs leading internet businesses - Naukri.com - India’s no. 1 job site, Jeevansathi.com – one of the leading matrimonial portals, 99acres.com - India’s No.1 real estate portal and Shiksha.com – India’s leading education portal. The company also owns Quadrangle – an offline executive search business, and Naukri Gulf (a leading jobsite in the Middle East market).

At 10:34 am, Info Edge (India) was trading 3 per cent higher at Rs 3,199 on the BSE, as compared to 1 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined around 270,000 equity shares had changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report.