LEAP India
13 August 2026
LEAP India Limited
Incorporated in 2013, LEAP India is India's largest supply chain asset pooling company. It owns pallets, containers and material handling equipment and rents them to customers on a per day basis instead of customers buying and maintaining their own. It held 14.7 million assets across 29 fulfilment centres serving over 1,000 customers as of March 2026. Pallets were 62.2% of FY26 revenue, containers 21.1% and MHE 15.2%. It holds 90% of India's pallet pooling market and is promoted by KKR and Sunu Mathew.
DRHP filed: September 29, 2025
IPO open & close: August 7, 2026 to August 11, 2026
Listing date: August 14, 2026 (BSE and NSE)
BRLM: JM Financial, Avendus Capital, IIFL Capital and UBS Securities India
Auditor: Walker Chandiok & Co LLP
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LEAP India dominates Indian pallet pooling with ~90% share and is backed by reputed PE firm, KKR. However, the segment appears nascent and very early for adoption at scale. The availability of cheap labour and absence of proper standards & logistics infrastructure constrains India's palletisation rates (goods moved on pallets) at 17% against 89% to 94% in developed markets, and pooling penetration (rented share of circulating pallets) at ~9.4%. The business is asset heavy with low returns on capital & capex needs, which should improve only at scale. At 113x P/E and 20.6x EV/EBITDA, against global players such as Brambles at 20x and 9x, we would prefer to be on sidelines and revisit our thesis after few quarters.
One can expect decent listing gains as per current GMP ~10% (9 Aug 2026), provided the GMP sustains.
• LEAP owns pallets, containers and material handling equipment and rents them out on a per day basis (pooling). A pallet is a flat wooden or plastic platform with a gap underneath so a forklift can lift it, and goods are stacked on it and move as one block through the truck, the rack and the warehouse. Pallets were 62.2% of FY26 revenue, containers 21.1% and MHE 15.2%. Pooling works because a pallet ends up wherever the goods end up, and sending it back empty costs more than the pallet is worth. LEAP runs 29 fulfilment centres across 12 states, collects locally, repairs and re-rents in the same region. It holds 90% of India's pallet pooling market, leads containers after the CHEP India acquisition, and subsidiary TARON is the second largest forklift pooling player at 28.7% share behind Godrej RenTRUST at 29.2%.
• Palletisation is generally observed to be high where labour is expensive. In CY2025 it stood at 89% in North America, 91% in the EU, 94% in Australia and NZ, against just 17% in India. Per capita pallet holdings are as low as 0.1 in India, while it is 3.4 in the EU and 2.9 in North America. Developed markets also wrote rules around the pallet, such as a standard Euro pallet size matched to standard trailer widths, retailer mandates from Walmart and Tesco requiring palletised delivery, and EU workplace rules limiting manual lifting weights. India has neither a standard pallet size nor a standard truck body. Palletisation might still be at a very early stage in India.
• Pooling penetration in India is 9.4%, or 10 million of 106 million circulating pallets, against 55% in North America, 45% in the EU, 50% in the Gulf and 95.1% in Australia and New Zealand. China is such example where palletisation reached 60% but pooling was at 9.5% only. Pooling stays under 15% across most emerging economies on theft risk and fragmented standards (Mordor Intelligence, Dataintelo). For India to close the gap, it needs proper standards and infrastructure, which could be a long journey.
• LEAP's FY26 revenue rose 56.4% to 730 cr, largely the first full year of consolidating CHEP India, the Indian arm of Brambles (the world's largest pallet pooling company) which LEAP acquired in January 2025 and merged in June 2025. Container rental, the segment CHEP led, rose 151% to 154 cr for LEAP. Return on capital employed was just 8.2% (FY25) and 9.3% (FY26), and return on equity 4.6% (FY25) and 6.5% (FY26), despite utilisation of 89.3% on pallets, 71.7% on containers and 79.8% on MHE (FY26).
• The 49.5% EBITDA margin ignores the heavy depreciation on a gross fixed asset base of ~2,000 cr (FY26). Depreciation was ~28.0% of revenue, and finance costs ~12.8%, leaving a PAT margin of ~8.5% (FY26). Capex ran 300 cr to 400 cr annually and reached 53.5% of revenue in FY26. Free cash flow has been in negative for each of the last 3 years.
• Brambles, operating 348 million pallets across 60 countries under the CHEP brand, earned a 21.4% return on capital employed (avg) in FY25 (June financial year) on revenue of USD 6.67 bn, generated USD 1.09 bn of free cash flow before dividends and ran pooling capex at 12.3% of sales. It exited India in January 2025, selling CHEP India to LEAP at an enterprise value of 715 cr, with its CEO saying that creating meaningful value from further investment requires a long-term timeframe. A close domestic fleet renting peer, Sanghvi Movers, India's largest crane rental company, earned ~15% return on capital employed (avg) on FY26 revenue of 1,070 cr at 79% fleet utilisation.
• LEAP's customer base grew past 1,000 with churn among its top 100 customers at nil in FY26, against 0.19% in FY25 and 0.75% in FY24. Contracts run one to five years with auto renewal and cost pass through on input inflation. Customers are sticky and switching costs are high, since moving away means re-palletising every warehouse, rack and loading dock.
• While contracts allow inflation linked escalation and cost pass through, pricing power is limited despite low competition, as the alternative for a customer is going back to owning pallets, so price cannot exceed the all in cost of ownership. Revenue per pooled asset moved only from 461 in FY24 to 496 in FY26.
• The IPO ask valuation is 20.6x EV/EBITDA and 113x P/E, at an enterprise value of ~7,450 cr and a market cap of 7,025 cr. Brambles trades near 19x P/E and 10.4x EV/EBITDA, Sanghvi Movers near 23x earnings and 11.8x EV/EBITDA. The valuation appears expensive for a business whose end market is still at a very early stage in India.
• KKR is a promoter of the company with a 73.78% pre offer stake on a fully diluted basis through its investment vehicle Vertical Holdings II Pte Ltd. It will sell 41.4% of its holding in the OFS for 1,999 cr and reduce its stake to 40.41% post offer. KKR took control in September 2023 by buying out Mayfield, IndiaNivesh, Sixth Sense, 360 One PE, 360 One Seed Ventures, TVS Shriram and Morgan Stanley's North Haven for 1,148 cr, and 209 cr paid to around 30 individual and HNI holders.
• Sunu Mathew is the other promoter of the company. LEAP was incorporated in July 2013 and he acquired majority shareholding from the original shareholders in 2014, and has been leading the company since February 2014. He was Director, FMCG at CHEP India prior to joining LEAP. He is not selling in the OFS and will hold 19.70% post offer.
Business
• LEAP owns 14.7 million pooled assets as of March 2026, comprising 8.98 million pallets, 5.71 million containers and 4,743 units of material handling equipment. It buys finished assets from suppliers, deploys them at customer sites, collects them back, repairs them and re-rents them.
• Pallets contributed 62.2% of FY26 revenue, down from 67.9% in FY25 and 72.2% in FY24. Container rental income rose 151% to 154 cr and MHE rental rose 25% to 111 cr. On a total income basis, asset pooling excluding MHE was 82.5% and MHE pooling 15.4%. The shift away from pallets follows the CHEP India acquisition, which brought in the container business.
• Pallets carry loads up to 5 tons. Containers include foldable large containers, crates and utility boxes, and are fitted with passive RFID tags. MHE is run through subsidiary TARON and covers lithium-ion forklifts, narrow aisle forklifts and pallet trucks. Assets are rented either at a fixed customer location on per day rent, or on movement hire where a fee applies each time the asset changes location.
• Customers grew to over 1,000 in FY26 from over 500 in FY24 and include Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, Marico, Daikin, Haier, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles and Autoliv. All revenue is domestic.
• The company has 3 wholly owned subsidiaries: TARON Material Handling Equipments, which houses the entire MHE business and 2 recently incorporated entities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE with no operations in FY26. TARON acquired Skan Marine Services for 95.0 cr in February 2023, and LEAP acquired CHEP India for 1,004 cr in January 2025.
Promoters and Leadership
• LEAP is promoted by KKR, through Vertical Holdings II Pte Ltd, and Sunu Mathew. Together they held 94.85% before the offer on a fully diluted basis, and 95.42% with the promoter group. KKR took control in September 2023.
• Sunu Mathew, aged 52, is Chairman, Managing Director and CEO. He holds a B.Com from Delhi University and a PGDBM from IIRM Jaipur, and completed the Senior Management Programme at IIM Calcutta. He was National Supply Chain Manager at L'Oreal India and then Director, FMCG at CHEP India, where he was part of the team from the start of its India operations.
• The RHP states that the promoters are not the original promoters of the company. LEAP was incorporated in July 2013 and Sunu Mathew acquired majority shareholding from the original shareholders in 2014.
Shareholding Pattern
• Vertical Holdings II (KKR) held 73.78% and Sunu Mathew 21.07%, with the promoter group taking the total to 95.42%.
• Investors over the years included Mayfield, IndiaNivesh, Sixth Sense, 360 One, TVS Shriram, Morgan Stanley's North Haven and Schroders, all of whom were bought out by KKR in 2023.
Issue Details
Fresh issue size - Amount → 480 cr; To be utilized in -
• Repayment or pre-payment of certain borrowings → 360 cr
• General Corporate Purposes & Others
Offer For Sale size - Amount → 2,000 cr;
• The company's promoter Vertical Holdings II Pte Ltd (KKR) will sell shares worth 1,999 cr, which is 41.4% of its pre-IPO shareholding, resulting in a post-IPO stake of 40.41% from 73.78%.
• Promoter group entity KIA EBT Scheme 3 will sell shares worth 1.38 cr.
Financials
