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SBI, ICICI Pru and HDFC MFs corner 40 per cent of Amagi’s Rs 805 crore anchor book
Amagi Media Labs has drawn heavyweight backing ahead of its public debut, with India’s top three mutual fund houses, SBI MF, ICICI Prudential MF and HDFC MF, mopping up about 40 per cent of its Rs 805 crore anchor book. The ad-tech firm allotted 22,295,799 equity shares to 42 anchor investors at Rs 361 a share, the top end of the price band, ahead of its Rs 1,789-crore initial public offering that opened on 13 January 2026.
Amagi is a rare case where all three leading consortium fund houses have lined up as anchors. They were joined by a roll-call of domestic and global institutions, including Birla MF, Fidelity, Motilal Oswal MF, HDFC Life Insurance, Tata Mutual Fund, Franklin Templeton MF, 360One, Baroda BNP MF, Amundi, PGIM MF, Bandhan MF, Susquehanna International (SIG), Bharti Axa, Isometry Capital, Societe Generale, Goldman Sachs, Creaegis, Edelweiss Tokio Life, New Vernon Capital and Helios, among others.
The anchor book spans 35 resident and seven non-resident investors, combining domestic and foreign funds with long-only insurance capital. These are names known for their selectivity and patience.
Amagi’s IPO is CY2026’s first deep-tech, SaaS and private-sector listing, landing at a time when global markets remain skittish. Fresh issue proceeds of Rs 816 crore will be channelled into technology and cloud infrastructure, inorganic growth through yet-to-be-identified acquisitions and general corporate purposes.
The issue closes on 16 January, extended to four days owing to local municipal elections in Maharashtra. With blue-chip anchors on board and the price fixed at the ceiling, Amagi has fired the opening shot of the year’s IPO race and it has not missed.
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WPP appoints Estée Lauder’s Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as chief transformation officer
Former Estée Lauder executive to lead operations, technology and culture overhaul under WPP’s three-year growth plan
LONDON: WPP has appointed Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as chief transformation officer in a newly created role tasked with delivering the group’s Elevate28 strategy.
Choueiri joins from The Estée Lauder Companies, where she led enterprise-wide strategic initiatives, including the “One ELC” operating model and major upgrades to enterprise marketing, data and analytics capabilities. She also led the redesign of enterprise technology teams and served on the company’s AI taskforce, driving AI strategy, adoption and value realisation across the business.
At WPP, she will be responsible for designing, implementing and embedding the operating model behind Elevate28, the company’s three-year growth plan unveiled in February 2026. She will lead efforts to improve innovation, efficiency and integration across WPP’s client offerings, with a focus on delivering agile, outcome-driven solutions and measurable growth.
Choueiri will oversee organisational transformation across the group, working closely with product and enterprise technology teams to deploy AI, data and technology to build new capabilities and improve operational performance. She will also work with the people function to embed cultural change, strengthen an agile performance mindset and support talent development across the organisation.
Before joining Estée Lauder, she held senior roles across consulting and digital agencies, including at Accenture, Masaï (a Bain & Company spin-off), and Kearney, with experience spanning strategy, data and digital marketing transformation.
Cindy Rose, chief executive officer of WPP, said Choueiri brings a strong track record of leading large-scale transformation across operations, technology and culture, adding that her appointment will help accelerate the group’s next phase of growth under Elevate28.
Choueiri said WPP’s strategy represents an ambitious opportunity to reshape how the company operates and delivers for clients, adding that she looks forward to building integrated solutions and fostering a culture of innovation and change.
She will be based in New York and will join WPP’s executive committee.
