Copyright indiatimes
Omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart's anchor book has received bids worth Rs 68,000 crore, people briefed on the matter said. This is almost tenfold of Lenskart’s IPO size of Rs 7,300 crore.The anchor book, which is expected to close at Rs 3,300-3,500 crore, has received bids from foreign institutional investors such as BlackRock, Fidelity, Nomura and Singapore's GIC.Domestic investors and mutual fund houses including SBI Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential, HDFC and Birla Sun Life have bid to pick up Lenskart shares ahead of its initial public offering, which launches Friday.SBI Mutual Fund and Dmart promoter Radhakishan Damani have already bought Rs 190 crore worth of shares in pre-IPO secondary transactions from Lenakart cofounder Neha Bansal.Lenskart did not immediately respond to ET’s queries.Lenskart will go public on Friday, aiming for a valuation of Rs 70,000 crore. The IPO opens on October 31 and the listing is expected on November 10. In an interview with ET, founder and CEO Peyush Bansal said the 17-year-old company, which had once experimented beyond eyewear, has sharpened its focus on its core mission to sell a billion pairs of glasses without categorising itself as an online, offline or omnichannel retailer.Lenskart's four founders are set to make nearly Rs 1,200 crore from the eyewear retailer's listing. CEO Peyush Bansal will pocket around Rs 824 crore; Neha Bansal (his sister) will make Rs 41 crore. The other two Lenskart founders, Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi, will each scoop up Rs 115 crore.
