Sagility India Ltd, the healthcare business process management company controlled by Swedish private equity firm EQT, made a lackluster stock market debut on Tuesday with its shares listing at a premium of 3.5% to the issue price.
Shares of Sagility India began trading at Rs 31.06 apiece on the BSE, compared with the initial public offering price of Rs 30 apiece, and touched a high of Rs 32.90 in early trade, stock-exchange data showed. The shares ended the day at Rs 29.36, giving the company a market valuation of around Rs 13,744 crore ($1.63 billion).
The 30-stock benchmark Sensex closed 1.03% down on Tuesday.
Sagility's weak debut came after the company’s IPO was subscribed 3.2 times last week, with retail investors bidding for 4.16 times their quota and institutional investors placing bids for 3.52 times the shares allotted to them.
The IPO involved EQT selling about 702.2 million shares in Sagility for a total of about 2,106 crore ($250 million) at the upper end of the price band of Rs 28-30 apiece.
Sagility had filed its IPO papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India on June 28. SEBI approved the IPO on Oct. 9. EQT previously intended to sell as much as 984.46 million shares but later trimmed the offer for sale. Sagility didn't issue any fresh shares.
EQT, which acquired Baring Private Equity Asia in 2022 to expand its operations in the continent, likely generated modest returns on its investment, VCCircle previously reported.
Sagility was earlier known as HGS Healthcare and was part of Mumbai-listed Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd. Baring PE Asia acquired HGS Healthcare in August 2021 for $1.2 billion and renamed it Sagility the following year.
Established in 2021, Bengaluru-based Sagility provides technology-driven services to both healthcare payers and providers, covering core benefits administration and clinical services. These include claims management, payment integrity, clinical management, and more. Sagility's consolidated net profit for FY24 jumped 59% year-on-year to Rs 228.3 crore. Revenue from operations climbed to Rs 4,753.6 crore from Rs 4,218.4 crore in FY23.
While EQT’s returns from Sagility may be modest, the PE firm has harvested big sums from a few other local bets. EQT last year signed off with $2.2 billion from IT services firm Coforge and wrapped up its over $500 million exit from CMS Info Systems. However, EQT missed the benchmark when it exited RBL Bank this year, VCCircle reported in July.
EQT has also stitched several large deals in India since last year. It acquired a controlling stake in healthcare technology services company GeBBS Healthcare Solutions from Indian PE firm ChrysCapital in September. Last year, the PE firm bought a majority stake in digital engineering company Indium Software in December, acquired Indira IVF in July and teamed up with ChrysCapital to purchase education finance company Credila from HDFC in June.
