Hyundai to launch India’s largest $3.3 bn IPO next week

Hyundai Motor Co.'s Indian subsidiary said on Wednesday it is set to launch its initial public offering, the largest listing in the country, next week to raise up to $3.3 billion and become the leading South Korean automaker’s global export hub.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd. wholly owned by Hyundai Motor Co. is scheduled to open the IPO on Oct. 15 as it secured approval for the listing from the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

The parent plans to sell a stake of up to 17.5% in the Indian unit, or 142.2 million shares, to raise as much as 278.6 billion Indian rupee ($3.3 billion), gaining its first listing out of South Korea. The stocks to start trading in Mumbai on Oct. 22 will be offered at 1,865 rupee to 1,960 rupee apiece.

At the top end of the price range, the listing, the world’s second-biggest in 2024, values Hyundai Motor India at about $19 billion, some 40% of the parent’s $45 billion valuation on South Korea’s benchmark Kospi.

The IPO is expected to become the largest listing in India’s history, exceeding that of the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India in May 2022.

“Indian investors think highly of the growth potential of Hyundai’s Indian unit,” said an industry source in Seoul.

The company has sold 8.2 million vehicles in India, the world’s third-largest automobile market since its entry in 1996. The manufacturer of the Exter compact sport utility vehicle is the No. 2 passenger car player in the world’s most populous country after Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

GLOBAL EXPORTS HUB

Hyundai Motor Co. will use the proceeds to develop the Indian unit as its global export hub.

“We plan to foster the Indian unit as a global exports hub to expand our business in Asia, the Middle East and Africa,” Hyundai Motor Co. Executive Chairman Chung Euisun said in April when he visited India. “We will develop electric vehicles dedicated to India and expand EV infrastructure.”

Hyundai Motor India, which currently manufactures 820,000 vehicles a year at two plants in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, is poised to ramp up the production capacity to 1 million once it completes its third factory in Pune, Maharashtra in the second half of 2025.

The company plans to produce EVs in the country while establishing 485 charging stations by 2030 there.

“We aim to take another by the listing in India, the world’s most dynamic market,” said a Hyundai Motor India official. “We will do our utmost to become a company for the Indian people by spending most of the proceeds here.”

Write to Jae-Fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.