Bira beer maker raises ₹85 cr in rights issue, cuts workforce to rein in costs

The company, founded by Ankur Jain in 2015, is raising a total ₹100 crore in a rights issue for working capital requirements, and the remainder ₹15 crore is expected to be raised by the middle of July, the people cited earlier said on the condition of anonymity.

These shares are being sold at ₹325 apiece, a substantial discount of 55% from a previous round when Japanese beer maker Kirin came in at over ₹700 per share. B9 currently has about 6,500 private investors, and a large family office is also likely to now come in as a first-time investor. The people cited earlier also said B9 has now reworked its arrangements with four breweries, which will no longer manufacture exclusively for them. This is being done to control costs.

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It is also in the midst of raising an ₹800 crore round through which some of its early backers may look to cash out.

A rights issue is a mechanism to raise funds, in which a company offers its existing shareholders the chance to buy more shares typically at a discounted price, in proportion to their holdings. 

Workforce shrink

"A huge amount of shares have come up for sale in the last two years largely because of an exodus of employees in the last two years who sold their employee stock options (Esops). The company has also pruned its employee base from 975-odd employees to 500 or so, some of these corporate employees had stock options. Interestingly the number of shareholders is more than what restaurant aggregator Zomato had itself before its IPO," said a company official, who is close to the development.

Beer production is a capital-intensive industry, with states claiming nearly two-thirds of its revenues. It also has high freight costs, which reduces profitability. As per B9 Beverages' most recent filings with the ministry of corporate affairs, its operating revenue slumped to ₹638.5 crore in FY24 from ₹824.3 crore in FY23. Losses also widened significantly, rising to ₹748.8 crore in FY24 compared to ₹445.4 crore in FY23.

The company, which had earlier planned to go public in 2026, has now put it off to 2028.

Mint has also learnt that the company has multiple share classes, with equity holders owning only a small portion of the shares as of 16 June, when part of the rights issue closed.

Other passive shareholders will also participate and the window will close by the middle of next month. So far, it has already received commitments for about 85% of the right's issue amount and the aggregate number of investors participating so far is over 300, which includes the large family office, which is expected to come for the first time.

"It's definitely a big discount from the last time when the Japanese beer maker came in at ₹718 per share. From that, this is a 55% discount, that's why a lot of employees have participated. It's a good price. While my investment could go either way, most investors and myself believe this could go up because it's strengthening its position in many markets again, one of which is Delhi," the official cited earlier added.

Shifting focus

The company, according to its latest investor relations report accessed by Mint, has now reduced its focus from 25-30 big markets to just the bigger metros and four tier-II cities.

Queries sent to Ankur Jain, the company's founder, remained unanswered till press time.

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In FY23, Japan's Kirin Global (the makers of Kirin Ichiban beer) invested $70 million to become the largest shareholder in B9 Beverages. In FY24, Tokyo-based Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group invested $10 million in the company, which subsequently secured an additional $50 million in external commercial borrowing from Kirin and Tiger Pacific Capital.

In February, Mint also reported that B9 was facing troubles with tax authorities in various states with huge pending liabilities not just to states but also to employees who had not been receiving salaries on time. However, a bulk of its employee dues from the last financial year have now been settled, said two company insiders.

It has also worked on changing its sales and supply chain models in an attempt to turn the company around. It is now largely focusing on distributing its beer instead of manufacturing it, much like what other brands in the FMCG sector do, easing up its requirements for fixed and working capital.

It has now reworked its business model with four breweries to move to contract manufacturing. Just two breweries—in Gwalior and Nagpur—will continue to exclusively produce for them.

The beer company, in its investor deck, added that it was streamlining operations to focus on Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra—which now account for 55% of its revenue. It said it cut its manufacturing footprint by 40%, reducing capacity from 25 million to 15 million cases to improve utilisation to 58% by FY26 and slash factory overheads by nearly 50%.

A shift to contract manufacturing at four breweries will save it as much as ₹600 crore annually, it added. With this, its margins could rise to 66% in FY26 from 63% in FY24. Fixed costs, too, it said, had dropped by ₹2,000 crore versus FY24, driven by a 40% reduction in headcount and tighter control over marketing, with spends now focused on in-store promotions.

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According to industry body Brewers Association of India, 400 million beer cases were sold in FY23 and about 430 million in FY25. Three large brands command an 86% share of the overall market, including Kingfisher, Carlsberg and Budweiser maker Ab InBev (in no particular order).

According to Bira's investor deck for May 2025, it is the country's fourth-largest beer company with a manufacturing capacity of 2.1 million hectolitres or 25 million cases per annum.