BluSmart investors look to buy promoters’ stake, revive the ride-hailing company
Summary
If the transaction goes through, it would protect investors' money, keep drivers employed, and bring BluSmart's blue-and-white electric cabs back on the streets. It would also mean the complete exit of Jaggi, who founded the company six years ago.
Investors in BluSmart are in talks to buy out promoter Anmol Singh Jaggi in a bid to revive the ride-hailing company, two people aware of the development said.
The due diligence and valuation exercises are nearly complete, and some legal hurdles related to transfer of shares from Jaggi and his brother Puneet Singh Jaggi are being ironed out, the people said.
If the transaction goes through, it would protect investors' money, keep drivers employed, and bring BluSmart's blue-and-white electric cabs back on the streets. It would also mean the complete exit of the Jaggis, who founded the company six years ago.
Investors led by BP Ventures are in advanced talks to take charge of the company, said the people, who are investors in BluSmart as well as Gensol Engineering Ltd, the Jaggis' other company.
According to Tracxn, promoters held about 23.98% in BluSmart as of February, with the rest owned by investors including SoftBank, Mayfield India Fund, 100 Unicorns, and responsAbility, as well as actor Deepika Padukone and cricketer M.S. Dhoni.
Anmol Jaggi and BP Ventures did not respond to queries.
Also read | Uber’s lifeline off the table for BluSmart as EV depreciation becomes key contention
Investors hope to buy out the Jaggis' shares at par value, request private lenders to write off some of the loans, and invest additional capital to restart operations, the people added. A big chunk of BluSmart's ₹850 crore borrowing is owed to Gensol.
On 16 April, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued an interim order barring the Jaggis from the stock market and holding directorships in any listed company, after finding suspected cases of forgery and fund diversion. Sebi found the Jaggi brothers had misused funds from financial institutions to buy Blusmart’s cars for his own personal use.
The Sebi order has barred fresh activity in the account, except for settling earlier orders and closing derivative positions.
Shares of Gensol crashed following the Sebi order, while BluSmart ground to a halt.
Read this | How did Gensol's lenders miss a ₹262-crore gap for more than a year?
According to Amarjit Chopra, former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), BluSmart’s investors can appeal to Sebi to allow transactions that will secure its business. "At best, the transaction may result in any payment due to Blusmart promoters going to an escrow account," Chopra said.
Cab hailing giant Uber earlier explored a deal with BluSmart, but that turned out to be a non-starter as it wanted to include BluSmart’s cars in fleet, but not buy out its investors. Being an asset-light model, Uber also did not want to take the burden of BluSmart's lease rentals, which fell short of the deal that lenders who financed the cars were looking for.
Said Abizer Diwanji, founder of NeoStrat Advisors: “The investors in BluSmart need to call for a complete restructuring in the ownership and debt of the company. It should be done in such a way that eventually, BluSmart is able to cut off its umbilical cord with Gensol and be able to go its own way."
And this | Uber’s lifeline off the table for BluSmart as EV depreciation becomes key contention
Considered a successful ride hailing company until recently, BluSmart abruptly ceased operations in mid-April.
The investors are keen on tying up a deal quickly since BluSmart was considered a viable business with profitable unit economics per ride until it went of the roads. Its operations were monitored regularly by investors like BP Ventures which had a representative in its board, and its services had earned customer loyalty, despite being pricier.
Though lead times to book a BluSmart cab were longer, its drivers seldom cancelled trips. Technically too, it is imperative to get the cars moving. Batteries left unused for long undergo deep discharge, and reviving degraded batteries can be costly.
Though resuming operations will immediately help BluSmart investors to preserve their capital, it will also be useful to other stakeholders. It will give Jaggis liquidity and restart payment of lease rentals to Jaggi-promoted Gensol Engineering, which owns a big chunk of cars that BluSmart runs in its fleet. The cars are now hypothecated to its lenders by Gensol, and servicing those loans is essential to bring the cars back on the road.
And read | How the Gensol debacle wrecks Jaggis' other IPO plans
