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Authors: JordanKOLKATA: Xiaomi Corp’s India managing director and global vice-president Manu Kumar Jain is set to benefit substantially when the $18-billion Chinese smartphone maker lists shares in Hong Kong over the next few months in one of the biggest initial public offerings (IPOs) globally in four years.
Jain, 37, is the only foreigner among the 10 employees on board and senior management team who has shares allotted under the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) as per the draft prospectus filed on Thursday.
It said Jain has 2.3 million shares, making him its third-highest ESOP holder globally.
He was allotted the shares in five tranches starting June 2014 when the brand entered India, with the last two awarded in January and February this year, as per the filing.
ESOP holders are led by Xiaomi Corp CFO Chew Shou Zi and Wang Chuan, senior vice president of the TV business, with 5 million shares each.
Jain didn’t respond to queries.
Filings didn’t say how much Xiaomi is looking to raise in the IPO, total number of shares or break down holdings by percentage.
A Reuters report said it’s likely to raise about $10 billion at a valuation of $80-100 billion.
An analyst at a leading cellphone industry tracker said Jain’s holding will fetch a substantial amount.
“It will be difficult to estimate valuation of Jain’s holding in Xiaomi right now, but it could well go into a few millions of dollars,” he said, requesting anonymity.
Jain is credited with building the company’s smartphone business in India and making it market leader in the last quarter, overtaking South Korean giant Samsung.
His gross salary was Rs 65 lakh in FY17 as per Registrar of Companies filings.
“Jain has taken the position vacated by Xiaomi’s ex-global VP Hugo Barra who quit in January last year and was one of the most celebrated foreign employees in the company,” said a senior business partner of Xiaomi.
Prior to joining Xiaomi, Jain was the cofounder and managing director of fashion ecommerce site Jabong, which he exited in 2014.
The Indian Institute of Technology-Indian Institute of Management alumnus is one of the most active Indian CEOs on social media.
