Thyrocare Technologies Ltd, India's largest thyroid testing company, is targeting a valuation of as much as $360 million (about Rs 2,400 crore) through its initial public offering that opens on April 27.
The company has priced the offering in a band of Rs 420-446 per share. The entire public issue is an offer for sale by the company's promoters and a private equity investor. The issue, which aims to raise up to Rs 480 crore ($72 million), will close on April 29.
Thyrocare had filed its draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India at the end of last year. The capital markets regulator approved the issue last month.
Thyrocare CEO A Velumani will sell a 1 per cent stake while PE investor CX Partners, which holds 21 per cent of the company, will offload a 19 per cent stake via the IPO. Other investors Norwest Venture Partners, Emerging India Fund and Samara Capital will retain their holding. Norwest and Samara hold 9.43 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively, of the company.
Thyrocare reported a net profit of Rs 40 crore for the nine months through December 2015 on total revenue of Rs 180.5 crore. For the full year 2014-15, it posted a net profit of Rs 44.4 crore on total revenue of Rs 190.3 crore.
JM Financial, Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd and ICICI Securities are the investment bankers for the issue.
The Indian IPO market rebounded strongly last year and a string of healthcare firms either launched, filed or got SEBI's approval for public share sales.
Thyrocare rival Dr Lal PathLabs Ltd made a spectacular debut in December, underlining investor interest in the diagnostics segment.
Other healthcare companies including drugmaker Alkem Laboratories Ltd, hospital chain Narayana Hrudayalaya Pvt Ltd and Biocon Ltd's Syngene International Ltd contract research unit also made strong debuts on the stock exchanges.
Earlier this month, however, oncology chain HealthCare Global Enterprises Ltd (HCG) bucked the trend as its shares slumped on their stock market debut. Analysts, however, said that HCG's shares could recover over a period as oncology is a capital-intensive sector requiring a longer gestation period for the facilities to turn a profit.
The buzz around public floatation of healthcare companies will continue with single-specialty firm New Delhi Centre For Sight having recently getting SEBI's nod for IPO.
