MUMBAI: Italian stationery maker FILA will give up majority control of its India unit, DOMS, in a major rejig of its operations. It will sell shares worth Rs 800 crore of the unit through primary transactions and as a result, will see its stake fall to 30% from the current 51%.
Milan-listed FILAfirst checked into DOMS in 2012 by acquiring a 18.5% stake.It subsequently raised its stake to 51%, making a total investment of Rs 291 crore in the Indian company till date.
FILA (not related to Italian sportswear brand FILA) counts DOMS among the top three units within its operations. The US is its largest market.
Indian partners, Santosh Raveshia and Ketan Rajani (their fathers, who were friends, started the writing products business in 1973) hold 49% in DOMS. They too will sell shares worth Rs 50 crore through primary transactions and will emerge as the largest shareholder of DOMS with a 44% stake.

DOMS’ initial public offering (IPO) follows fellow players Cello World and Flair Writing’s fund-raise programmes, which had raised Rs 1,900-crore and Rs 593-crore from the primary market in November.
On Thursday, DOMS flagged a price range of Rs 750-790 per share for the IPO. At the upper price band, DOMS is valued at Rs 4,794-crore.
According to the IPO documents, FILA acquired 2.86 crore shares of DOMS at an average cost of Rs 102 apiece. DOMS will decide the number of seats FILA will have on its board to reflect the new shareholding structure. Currently, they have four seats on the board of the company.
The India unit depends on its Italian shareholder for its business operations, particularly for exports. In FY23, it exported Rs 159 crore to FILA, which comprised 13% of its gross product sales.
The Indian company said that in the event FILA ceases to be DOMS’ promoter, it may affect its research and development as well as export capabilities. “We cannot assure you that our corporate promoter FILA—Fabbrica Italiana Lapised Affini —will not dilute its entire shareholding in the company and/or disassociate from the company in the future, which may have a material adverse effect on the business operations,” read the IPO documents.
The founders Rasiklal Raveshia and Mansukhlal Rajani started the writing instruments business by being a third party manufacturer. After 33 years, their children decided to launch their own brand of stationery products under DOMS, which is derived from the first letter of their children’s names—Dharam, Om, Muskan-Maitri and Sahil- Shivani.