Peyush Bansal’s Lenskart Mulls Pulling Out from IPO After Valuation Controversy

India Lenskart, one of the biggest eyewear brands is said to rethink its IPO plans following the colossal backlash against its abrupt valuation increase.

Only three months previous, Lenskart was worth approximately 8,700 crores at which founder Peyush Bansal repurchased 4.26 crores shares of the old investors at 222 crores. However, this time by reports of the company IPOing at an astounding valuation of 70000 crore, the internet and financial circles went hype and dubbed the jump as unrealistic and manipulated.

The prolific valuation increase in a relatively brief period has provided grounds of debate over transparency and insider power. Even hinting that the intervention of SEBI could be necessary, numerous investors and analysts have claimed that such a steep increase cannot occur without either regulatory oversight failure or financial engineering.

Peyush Bansal and Lenskart board have now reconsidered the IPO schedule, according to sources. The increasing feeling is that the controversy might affect investor confidence and credibility of the brand in case it goes ahead without paying attention to the valuation issues.

Although Lenskart is yet to make any formal announcement, those close to the company have hinted that the company may postpone or even abandon its IPO plans until the dust settles. The scandal has also given rise to debate about the startup valuation in India, with a number of analysts fearing that the ecosystem could be negatively affected in the long term due to high value creation.

In the meantime, the attention is paid to Peyush Bansal and SEBI. The decision that Lenskart takes regarding its IPO and whether to withdraw it or not may become one of the landmark moments in the history of startup regulations in India.