(from left) Ashish Nigam, Managing Director, Axis Capital Ltd, Naveen Kumar, Chief Executive Officer – India, Wiring Harness & Electronics, Dhoot Transmission Ltd, Rahul Dhoot, Managing Director, Dhoot Transmission Ltd, Nitinkumar Kalani, Chief Financial Officer, Dhoot Transmission Ltd and Jibi Jacob, Managing Director, Head of India Equity Capital Markets, Jefferies India Private Ltd, at the Dhoot Transmission IPO press conference
Electric vehicles are not cannibalising internal combustion engine sales in India’s two-wheeler market. EV became a plus one at home,” according to Rahul Dhoot, founder and managing director of Dhoot Transmission Ltd. He made the point at the company’s IPO press conference on Tuesday. “EV is growing and ICE is also growing,” he said.The company’s IPO opens on August 10 and closes August 12, with a price band of ₹829-871 a share. The total issue size is ₹3,067 crore, comprising a fresh issue of ₹1,400 crore and an offer for sale of approximately 1.91 crore shares. by promoters BC Asia Investments XV Ltd, an entity of private equity firm Bain Capital, and Mangalam Capital Private Ltd.Fund utilisationOf the fresh proceeds, ₹766 crore will retire existing debt, ₹150 crore will fund two new manufacturing facilities, and the remainder is earmarked for general corporate purposes and unspecified acquisitions. Post-IPO, the company expects to carry a cash surplus of roughly ₹900-₹1,000 crore on a debt-free balance sheet. The anchor investor date is August 7.That assessment underpins the Aurangabad-headquartered company’s growth thesis. India’s two-wheeler production stood at roughly 21 million units in both 2019 and 2026, yet Dhoot’s revenues grew five-fold, from ₹900 crore to ₹4,500 crore, over the same period. Chief Financial Officer Nitinkumar Kalani attributed the divergence to a sharp rise in content per vehicle, particularly as emission norms shifted from BS4 to BS6 and EV adoption climbed.Kalani put numbers to the shift: a BS4 vehicle that previously represented ₹100 of content for the company now represents ₹400 at the BS6 stage; an equivalent EV represents ₹2,000. “If it is 10 EVs increasing for us, it is as good as 50 ICE increasing for us,” he said. The company supplies charging cords, off-board chargers, high-voltage and low-voltage wiring harnesses, battery assemblies, DC-DC converters, motor harnesses and USB-C chargers across the EV powertrain.Dhoot Transmission currently holds a 38 per cent market share in India’s two-wheeler wiring harness segment and 41 per cent across two- and three-wheelers combined. Its top five customers, led by Bajaj Auto at roughly 21 per cent of revenue, followed by TVS at over 20 per cent and Honda at 11 per cent, account for nearly 80 per cent of sales.CEO Naveen Kumar acknowledged that customer concentration is a risk the company is addressing through expansion into passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, and a joint venture with Israeli firm Ride Vision for two-wheeler ADAS technology. “They have developed a very strong algorithm based on the Indian driving system,” Dhoot said of the Israeli partner.On margins, expansion from current EBITDA levels of 15.7 per cent is unlikely. “It has reached a level beyond which it is very difficult to expand the margins further,” he said. “Sustenance is what is crucial.”Published on August 4, 2026
