More Retail plans Rs 2,000 crore IPO, targets expansion and debt cut

Amazon-Samara Capital owned food and grocery supermarket chain, More Retail is planning a Rs 2,000 crore initial public offering (IPO) in the next 12-18 months by diluting about 10% of the equity, the company’s managing director Vinod Nambiar said.

The proposed IPO will be mostly through fresh capital infusion, with no significant offer-for-sale component, as the promoters, Samara Capital and Amazon’s investment entity in Singapore, who hold 51% and 48% respectively are unlikely to offload their shares, Nambiar told newspersons here on Monday.

The balance 1% is held by high net worth individuals and family offices. More Retail is the wholly-owned subsidiary of the holding company, More Consumer Brands where these companies own the stake.

“Both Samara and Amazon believe in the asset and they want to build the business long term. The IPO proceeds will be used for expansion and retire a significant part of the debt. More Retail has plans to expand its 775 store network to 3,000 stores by 2030 and halve its debt from Rs 500 crore as of today by the time it will go public,” said Nambiar.

More Retail’s current debt is partly term loan and partly non-commercial borrowings. Nambair said the business is not capital sucking as a supermarket costs Rs 30 lakh to set up since it takes the real estate on lease.

Nambiar said Amazon and Samara have together infused Rs 900 crore capital in the company in the last five years which was majorly used to reduce losses. The company has recently raised another Rs 150 crore by selling 1% stake to family offices in the last two months.

More Retail’s sales in 2024-25 was Rs 4985 crore, which went up 14% year-on-year. Around 25% of its sales is from online since the company is the prefered seller for Amazon’s grocery retail venture in India, Amazon Fresh. The company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) loss has come down from Rs 260 crore in FY23 to Rs 65 crore last fiscal.

This fiscal, it expects to rake in an EBITDA profit of Rs 60 crore, Nambiar said. “In about two years, we expect to be net profit positive. We should not lose cash from the operations. This fiscal we are also targeting Rs 6,000 crore revenue,” he said.

More has rationalized its store network by shutting unprofitable stores and exiting geographies like Maharashtra including Mumbai, New Delhi and Indore. It has also exited from lifestyle categories to focus only on food and grocery. The company has a presence in the South, Punjab, Haryana, Gurgaon and Noida, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. It has plans to enter Jharkhand and Odisha this year.