Hyundai and Kia offload Ola Electric shares worth ₹690 crore, signalling profitability pressures

Hyundai Motor Corporation and its sister company, Kia Motor Corporation, have offloaded bulk shares of the electric two-wheeler maker Ola Electric worth ₹690 crore in open market transactions on Tuesday, according to bulk deal data available at the NSE.

As per the data, Hyundai offloaded 108 million shares at ₹50.70 per share, totalling ₹551.9 crore. Kia, on the other hand, sold 27 million shares at ₹50.55 per share, totalling ₹137.3 crore. On Tuesday’s trading session, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius was a significant buyer of Ola Electric shares. It acquired shares worth ₹435.4 crore, the data showed. 

Ola Electric’s fourth-quarter net loss more than doubled to ₹870 crore, from a loss of ₹417 crore in the same period last year. For the full year, losses widened to ₹2,276 crore in FY25, up from ₹1,586 crore in FY24, which was wider-than-expected loss of credit ratings agency Icra’s estimates of around ₹1,900—₹2,000 crore.

Its top-line numbers were dour as well—plunging 62% year-on-year to ₹611 crore in the fourth quarter, while it declined 9.38% to ₹4,645 crore in the whole financial year. The company’s EBITDA loss widened to ₹512 crore in the fourth quarter, compared to ₹154 crore a year earlier. Ola Electric also assessed its going concern assumptions and believes that the company will be able to continue operating as a going concern, which was also concurred by its auditor.

Ola Electric shares were trading at ₹50.11 on Wednesday’s late trading session, nearly halving from its all-time high of ₹100 in December last year. What has even dampened investor sentiment is the fact that Ola Electric’s recent proposal—that was ratified by its board—to raise up to ₹1,700 crore through non-convertible debentures (NCDs) and other debt instruments, barely a year after its IPO in August last year. 

Earlier in May, Icra downgraded Ola Electric, and its subsidiary Ola Cell Technologies on the concerns of continued cash burn for a “longer-than-expected” period and profitability. Reviewing the company’s long and short-term debt of ₹1,887 crore given by lenders like Bank of Baroda, Indian Bank, Axis Bank, the agency has downgraded its creditworthiness from A/A1 to BBB+.

Even as the company faces challenges such as claims regarding service backlog issues, alleged lack of compliance requirements at showrooms, and slow volume growth.

“Operating leverage benefits have been slow to come by, and thereby losses have been running higher than earlier estimated.  Profitability pressures, however, are expected to ease in FY2026 and thereafter,” Icra noted.