By Hritam Mukherjee
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Schloss Bangalore [SCHL.NS], the owner of Indian luxury hotel chain ‘The Leela’, is seeking a valuation of up to $1.7 billion after cutting its initial public offering (IPO) size by 30% due, in part, to a smaller debt load, it said on Wednesday.
Schloss set a price band of 413 rupees to 435 rupees per share for the downsized $409 million IPO, valuing the company at about 145 billion rupees ($1.7 billion) at the upper end of the band.
Schloss is selling shares worth 25 billion rupees in the IPO, about 17% less than originally planned, while Brookfield Asset Management is selling shares worth 10 billion rupees, or about 8% of its overall stake, the IPO prospectus showed.
The main reason Schloss filed for an IPO in September last year was to service its debt, but since then, it has been able to lower its debt obligations, CEO Anuraag Bhatnagar told Reuters.
The company’s adjusted net debt declined 32% on-year to 25.68 billion rupees in the fiscal year ended March 2025. It swung to a profit last fiscal, from a year-ago loss, helped by an 11% increase in revenue.
Brookfield, however, said it was selling fewer shares than the originally planned 20 billion rupees worth as the equity markets have declined since hitting record highs in late September, around the time Schloss filed its IPO papers.
“It (the market) may have become more volatile. Certainly a lot of things have happened geopolitically,” said Ankur Gupta, managing partner and head of Asia Pacific and Middle East at Brookfield Asset Management.
Indeed, several IPO hopefuls have either delayed or downsized their IPO plans as global trade worries and a domestic border conflict pressured markets.
The blue-chip Nifty 50 is roughly 6% down from the record-highs of September, despite a 5% gain this year.
Schloss’ IPO will open for bids from May 26 to May 28, and its shares are expected to start trading on June 2. ($1 = 85.5230 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Savio D’Souza)
