Bhagwati Products IPO Buzz: From Micromax Phones to Global Manufacturing

You probably haven't thought about Micromax in years. The brand that once outsold Samsung in India quietly faded from store shelves, and most people assumed that was the end of the story. It wasn't. Micromax didn't die. It just went backstage, and now the company sitting behind that curtain, Bhagwati Products, is walking straight onto Dalal Street with an IPO that could value it at over Rs 20,000 crore.

This is the story of how a forgotten phone brand became one of India's most important electronics manufacturers, and why almost nobody noticed until the IPO papers started moving.

Bhagwati Products Limited is the electronics manufacturing services arm built out of Micromax Informatics. Founded back in 2010 as Micromax's own assembly unit, it has spent the last two years transforming into one of India's fastest growing contract manufacturers for global smartphone brands.

The company has kicked off its IPO process, aiming to raise more than Rs 3,000 crore at a valuation north of Rs 20,000 crore. A consortium of marquee bankers including ICICI Securities, Axis Capital, Kotak Mahindra Capital, IIFL Securities, and Goldman Sachs has been roped in, and the draft red herring prospectus is expected within three to four months, with a likely market debut sometime in FY27.

Here is the part most people miss. Bhagwati is not a new company riding a manufacturing wave. It is Micromax, restructured. The same promoters who once built India's number two smartphone brand now run the factory floor that assembles devices for the brands that eventually pushed Micromax out of the market.

Rahul Sharma, co-founder of Micromax, is also the co-founder of Bhagwati Products today. The brand business shrank. The manufacturing business did not just survive, it scaled into something far bigger than the original phone label ever was.

The real inflection point came in 2024, when Shanghai based Huaqin Technologies picked up a 49 percent stake in the company. Huaqin is not a small name. It is the world's largest original design manufacturer, the company that quietly designs phones for Oppo, Vivo, and several other global brands behind the scenes.

Once that joint venture was sealed, orders from Oppo and Vivo started flowing in. Bhagwati took over Vivo's Greater Noida manufacturing facility and later leased a large chunk of Oppo's Greater Noida plant too. It now produces smartphones for Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, Realme, iQOO, Motorola, Acer, and Lenovo, and has even started exporting Motorola tablets to the United States.

In simple terms, Bhagwati did not invent a new business. It plugged into an existing global supply chain that was already looking for an Indian entry point because of government pressure for localisation.

The growth curve here is genuinely rare for an Indian manufacturing company.

That is somewhere between a 20x and 25x jump in under three years, in a smartphone market that has barely grown in volume terms over the same period. The growth is not coming from India suddenly buying more phones. It is coming from Bhagwati capturing a bigger slice of where those phones get made.

Profitability, though, is still catching up to revenue. FY25 profit after tax stood at an estimated Rs 42 crore, which is a thin margin for a company sitting on a Rs 20,000 crore plus valuation ask.

•   Fundraising target: Over Rs 3,000 crore

•   Implied valuation: Rs 20,000 to 25,000 crore (more than 2 billion dollars)

•   Forward revenue multiple: Roughly 1.3x to 1.7x based on FY26 guidance

•   Bankers: ICICI Securities, Axis Capital, Kotak Mahindra Capital, IIFL Securities, Goldman Sachs

•   DRHP filing: Expected within three to four months

•   Likely listing window: FY27

Bhagwati's range has expanded well beyond simple phone assembly. The current portfolio includes smartphones for multiple global brands, tablets including exports to the US, true wireless earbuds, storage devices, LED televisions, smart wearables, IT hardware, and automotive electronics. New facilities coming up in Greater Noida are being built specifically to add display and mechanics component manufacturing, which is a meaningful step up the value chain from pure assembly.

The company has also applied for approvals under the government's ECMS scheme to manufacture key components rather than just put together parts made elsewhere. That shift from assembler to component maker is the single biggest factor that could decide whether this IPO ages well or fades like so many capacity expansion stories before it.

Bhagwati's valuation ask sits right in the same band as established listed peers, even though its margins and operating history are nowhere near as mature. That gap between ambition and current profitability is exactly what public market investors will scrutinise hardest once the DRHP is out.

Micromax lost the phone war for fairly ordinary reasons. Chinese brands like Xiaomi and Oppo arrived with better supply chains, deeper marketing budgets, and online first pricing that Micromax could not match. Most Indian brands that lived through that period either shut down or shrank to a fraction of their old size.

What makes this story different is that the people behind Micromax did not walk away from electronics. They walked away from the brand and stayed in the factory. Instead of competing with Oppo and Vivo for customers, they started building Oppo and Vivo's phones for them. That pivot from front of house to back of house is rare, and it is the entire reason Bhagwati exists as an IPO candidate today while the Micromax retail brand barely registers anymore.

The bull case is straightforward. India's electronics manufacturing sector is being pushed hard by PLI incentives and the broader Make in India push. Global brands are actively looking to de-risk from China, and Oppo is reportedly already in fresh talks with Bhagwati and Amber Group for a deeper India manufacturing joint venture, separate from the existing Huaqin tie up. If Bhagwati successfully moves into component manufacturing, like displays and mechanics, its margin profile could start looking a lot more like Dixon's over the next few years.

The risk case is just as real. Nearly all of Bhagwati's order book traces back to Chinese brands and a Chinese ODM partner. Geopolitical friction between India and China, any tightening of FDI rules for Chinese owned entities, or a slowdown in global smartphone demand could all hit revenue fast, given how concentrated the client base still is. Margins also remain thin relative to the valuation being sought, and that imbalance needs to close before listing day.

Yes. Bhagwati Products started as Micromax Informatics' own assembly arm and is majority owned by Micromax's promoters, with Rahul Sharma as co-founder.

The company is targeting a fund raise of over Rs 3,000 crore at a valuation of roughly Rs 20,000 to 25,000 crore.

Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, Realme, iQOO, Motorola, Acer, and Lenovo, across smartphones, tablets, TWS devices, and storage products.

The DRHP is expected within three to four months of the announcement, with a likely listing in FY27, subject to market conditions.

Dixon Technologies and Amber Enterprises are the closest listed comparisons in India's EMS space.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. IPO details, valuations, and timelines are based on reports available as of June 2026 and may change before the official DRHP filing. Please consult an SEBI-registered advisor before making any investment decisions.