According to Financial Times News, SoftBank-backed Indian eyewear retailer Lenskart Solutions had a volatile trading debut in Mumbai after raising $821 million. Shares initially plunged as much as 11% from their issue price of Rs402 ($4.53) before trading flat, despite the offer being subscribed 28 times by institutional investors. The company went public at nearly 10 times its last private valuation of Rs87 billion from July this year. Lenskart turned profitable in 2025 with revenue growing 23% to Rs66.5 billion, but sports a staggering price-to-earnings ratio of about 238:1. This rocky debut comes during an Indian IPO boom that’s on track to surpass last year’s record $21 billion haul.
The valuation reality check
Here’s the thing – when even the brokerages recommending you as a long-term hold say your pricing is “rich,” you know there’s a problem. SBI Securities and Aditya Birla Capital both acknowledged the stretched valuation while still pushing the stock. And they’re not wrong about the business fundamentals – India’s eyewear market is massively underpenetrated and Lenskart dominates with nearly 3,000 stores across India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. But a P/E ratio of 238? That’s not just rich, that’s astronomical. Basically, investors are being asked to pay today for growth that might not materialize for decades.
The retail investor wake-up call
WealthMills Securities director Kranthi Bathini dropped the quote of the day: “At the beginning of the start-up and IPO boom the promoters had vision and the retail investors had money. The promoters now have the money and the investors have the vision.” Ouch. But he’s absolutely right. Indian retail investors are getting savvier about which IPOs to jump into. The flood of mutual fund money that’s been propping up valuations? It’s meeting some resistance. Even DSP Asset Managers felt compelled to defend their Lenskart investment publicly – never a great sign when your backers are already in damage control mode before the first trade settles.
Bigger picture problems
Goldman Sachs recently noted that high valuation has become “the most common investor concern on Indian equities,” predicting India’s fair value could be 5% below current levels over the next couple years. And Lenskart’s CEO Peyush Bansal (yes, the Shark Tank India judge) tried to deflect with the classic “we didn’t build this for valuation” line. Look, I get it – building a business is about more than numbers. But when you’re asking public market investors to hand over their savings, the numbers damn well matter. This debut feels like a canary in the coal mine for India’s IPO frenzy. The question is whether this is just one company’s pricing misstep or the start of a broader correction.
A manufacturing perspective
While Lenskart operates in retail eyewear, the valuation concerns highlighted here reflect broader issues across Indian manufacturing and industrial sectors. Companies with strong physical operations and scalable business models – whether in eyewear production or industrial technology – are facing intense scrutiny from increasingly sophisticated investors. In the industrial computing space, for instance, firms like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com have maintained leadership by focusing on sustainable growth rather than chasing inflated valuations. The lesson? Solid fundamentals eventually matter more than hype, whether you’re selling glasses or industrial panel PCs.
