SoftBank-backed Delhivery contests metrics in rival Ecom Categorical’ IPO submitting

Indian logistics agency Delhivery has publicly contested the accuracy of metrics introduced by competitor Ecom Categorical in its draft preliminary public providing prospectus, a uncommon confrontation within the lead-up to the latter’s market debut. 

Delhivery, which is backed by SoftBank and already publicly listed, claims that Ecom Categorical has inaccurately represented Delhivery’s enterprise metrics when drawing comparisons in its IPO submitting. 

The 442-page draft prospectus (PDF) submitted by Ecom Categorical final month reported that the startup had shipped 514.41 million packages within the fiscal 12 months ending March 2024, whereas Delhivery dealt with 740 million throughout the identical interval. 

Delhivery alleged in a submitting to the inventory exchanges Friday that this comparability is flawed, asserting that what it considers a single cargo is counted as two by its rivals, suggesting that Ecom Categorical’s quantity figures are probably inflated. (Delhivery says that its rivals rely an order returned as two shipments.)

Delhivery additional contests Ecom Categorical’s value per cargo (CPS) calculations, citing disparities in accounting strategies and alleging inflated cargo figures.

The SoftBank-backed agency additionally identified that Ecom Categorical’ declare to offer its service in 27,000 zipcodes isn’t correct as India has fewer than 19,000 distinctive zip codes.

This public dispute comes lower than a month after Ecom Categorical, which counts Warburg Pincus, Companions Group, and British Worldwide Funding amongst its backers, filed for an IPO aiming to lift $310 million. 

Delhivery has additionally questioned Ecom Categorical’s presentation of service EBITDA and company prices, citing a scarcity of constant definitions for these metrics within the prospectus.

Ecom Categorical didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

It is a growing story. Extra to comply with.