Tiger Global has taken 1.9% of the anchor allotment in Meesho’s upcoming initial public offering, reaffirming support for one of its earliest India bets as the ecommerce company heads to market this week. The New York–based investor first backed Meesho in 2019, participating in the company’s Series D round.
Meesho will open its IPO on Wednesday, December 3, and close on Friday, December 5. The company has set a price band of Rs 105–111 a share, valuing the business at about Rs 50,096 crore at the top end. At that price, the offering will raise Rs 5,421.05 crore, including a Rs 4,250-crore fresh issue and a significantly trimmed offer for sale.
Existing shareholders will now sell 10.55 crore shares, down roughly 40% from the previously planned 17.57 crore shares, cutting OFS proceeds to around Rs 1,172 crore from Rs 1,950 crore. Meesho held the fresh issue size unchanged, signalling an effort to limit secondary selling and reduce near-term supply once the shares list.
But the anchor round, typically a quiet prelude to Indian IPOs, has stirred discontent. A group of institutional investors has protested the sizeable allotment given to SBI Mutual Fund–managed schemes, according to Bloomberg and Economic Times reports. Some investors questioned whether the state-owned fund house received preferential treatment and raised concerns about transparency in the allocation process. Meesho and its bankers have not publicly responded.
Based on the anchor allocation document, SBI mutual funds dominated the anchor book with SBI Balanced Advantage Fund receiving the largest single allocation at 8.40%, followed by SBI Focused Fund at 7.58% and SBI Innovative Opportunities Fund at 5.33%. Combined with smaller allocations to other SBI schemes, including SBI Consumption Opportunities Fund (2.05%) and SBI Resurgent India Opportunities Scheme (0.82%), the fund house's total allocation appears to have exceeded 20% of the anchor portion, which sparked the controversy over potential preferential treatment.
Other major anchor investors include the Government of Singapore with 6.78%, Fidelity Funds – India Focus Fund at 3.78%, and Tiger Global at 1.97%. The Monetary Authority of Singapore received 1.42%, while various BlackRock, Axis Mutual Fund, and Aditya Birla Sun Life schemes collectively secured substantial portions of the remaining allocation. All anchor investors paid Rs 111 per share, with allocations finalized on December 2, 2025.
The unease prompted a number of marquee investors, including funds managed by Capital Group, Norges Bank, Aberdeen, Nomura, Nippon Life India, and ICICI Prudential, to withdraw from the anchor tranche, people familiar with the matter told reporters. The pullback is notable in a market where anchor participation is usually stable, and disagreements rarely spill into public view.
Bankers involved in the transaction have not commented on the objections. Meesho has also not issued a statement, and the final anchor list still features several global names, including BlackRock, Fidelity, GIC, ADIA, Baillie Gifford along with Tiger Global.
The IPO follows standard regulatory norms: at least 75% of shares are reserved for qualified institutional buyers, not more than 15% for non-institutional investors, and up to 10% for retail buyers. Investors can bid for a minimum lot of 135 shares.
Meesho, known for its low-cost marketplace model and appeal among India’s value-focused consumers, is pitching improved operating metrics and a more disciplined cost structure as it seeks a successful market debut. But the early friction in the anchor book.
Edited by Jyoti Narayan
Original Article
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