LG Electronics India's market cap surpasses parent's

LG Electronics India Pvt.'s market cap surpassed that of South Korean parent LG Electronics Inc. after the unit's shares surged more than 45% in its IPO on Oct. 14. The Indian unit's market cap reached 1.14 trillion rupees ($12.83 billion) on the day, while the parent company's valuation was 13.84 trillion won ($9.68 billion), according to CNBC. On Friday, the India unit's market cap stood at 1.14 trillion rupees, while LG Electronics's was 14.40 trillion won.

The Indian company's shares rose as much as 50 percent in early trading on Oct. 14 after the initial public offering saw the biggest demand for an Indian IPO since 2008, led by institutional investors. LG Electronics India's $1.3 billion initial public offering closed on Oct. 9 as investors rushed to buy a stake in the company in a crowded IPO market. The share sale attracted bids worth 4.43 trillion rupees ($49.9 billion) - the upper end of the company's target price range of 1,080 to 1,140 rupees per share, according to stock exchange data seen by Reuters. LG Electronics' offering became the most oversubscribed in the Indian market since Reliance Power's IPO in 2008.

LG Electronics India had received bids for 3.85 billion shares, or 54.02 times the offering, as of Oct. 9. The IPO was fully subscribed within hours of its launch on Oct. 7.

LG Electronics India's share sale is the third-largest in India since 2025, after Tata Capital, which closed for subscriptions in the week ended Oct. 3 with $2.9 billion in offerings, and HDB Financial, which attracted $19 billion in offerings before its debut in July. Other Indian IPOs that have seen substantial underwriting include HDB Financial Services earlier this year, Eternal in 2021, and Reliance Power in 2008, which attracted offerings worth about $80 billion (at current exchange rates).

LG Electronics India sold shares worth $392 million to anchor investors including BlackRock and investment funds from Singapore and Norway ahead of the IPO. In the share sale, qualified institutional buyers bid 166.5 times the allotted quota, while non-institutional and individual investors subscribed 22.4 times and 3.54 times, respectively. In the IPO, the parent company, LG Electronics, gave up a 15% stake. LG Electronics India did not issue new shares in the offering, so the existing shares of the parent company were sold. After initially filing for the IPO in December last year, LG Electronics had targeted a listing by May, but postponed the share sale, citing market volatility. LG Electronics India's shares are now traded on the National Stock Exchange of India and the BSE. The IPO was managed by a consortium that included Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Axis Capital, BofA Securities and Citigroup Global Markets India.

LG Electronics, India's second-largest appliance maker, sells products such as refrigerators, washing machines and televisions. The company competes with Whirlpool (US) and Samsung (South Korea) in the domestic market, which is expected to grow by 12% annually through 2029, according to consultancy RedSeer.