Mature business, corporate governance key to IPO success: Swiggy CFO Rahul Bothra
Bothra also called an initial public offering (IPO) the single largest marketing event that ever happens in a company's life.
According to Swiggy CFO Rahul Bothra, key factors like the maturity of the business model, a good corporate governance framework, and a strong independent Board are crucial before going public.
"There is always a sum of parts valuation that you will get depending where your cash flows are stacking for each of your business units, the intangible premium that gets built on top of that is what I call the corporate governance or corporate governance premium," he said in a fireside chat with Ashwin Damera, CEO of Emeritus and Eruditus, at the 2025 ASU+GSV & Emeritus Summit.
"Now, that's a personal KPI that every founder or CFO in their company should take, that we should be valued more than our sum of parts which objectively comes along," he added.
Bothra also called an initial public offering (IPO) the single largest marketing event that ever happens in a company's life. "My personal belief is that every company should aspire to be in the public market," he added.
Bothra also underlined the benefits of building strong relationships with institutional investors way before considering public listing.
Recounting an anecdote from his first public market investor conference in 2018, about six years before the company actually went public, Bothra told institutional investors that while Swiggy didn't have any immediate IPO plans, he urged them to start tracking and understanding its business model.
Over the years, this helped establish trust and credibility, ultimately leading to strong institutional backing when the company eventually went public, he noted.
Swiggy shares closed the listing day trading session on November 13 at Rs 464 on NSE, an 18.97% premium to the IPO price. The stock opened 7.69% higher on the NSE, even with an initial tepid reaction to its subscription.
Bothra also emphasised that a public listing provides an exit to early investors. The US has seen a very active secondary market compared to India where the private market is very restricted and very hard to get large exits, he explained.
(With inputs from Ishan Patra.)
Edited by Kanishk Singh
