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Markets regulator SEBI has approved the initial public offering of three companies – API Holdings, parent company of online pharmacy retailer PharmEasy, Adar Poonawalla-backed Wellness Forever Medicare and metal recycling firm CMR Green Technologies.
As per the information on the processing status of issues on SEBi’s website, the three companies have been issued observation letters by the market regulator last week on February 16-17, 2022. These companies had filed their preliminary IPO papers with SEBI between September and November last year.
In SEBI’s parlance, its observation implies go-ahead to launch an Initial Public Offering (IPO).
According to the draft red herring prospectus filed with the regulator, API Holdings is aiming to raise Rs 6,250 crore through its IPO.
The offer is going to be the primary issuance of equity shares and does not have an offer for sale (OFS). This essentially means the existing shareholders of API Holdings will not sell their stakes.
PharmEasy, which is one of the largest e-pharmacy firms in the country plans to utilise the net proceeds to prepay or repay outstanding debt of Rs 1,929 crore, fund organic growth initiatives totalling Rs 1,259 crore, pursue inorganic growth through acquisitions and other strategic initiatives aggregating to Rs 1,500 crore, and for general corporate purposes.
The approval from SEBI comes at a time when there is significant market volatility due to geopolitical concerns in Ukraine and Russia. This apart, investors of late have been merciless to the stocks of new age internet firms which got listed last year.
API Holdings had filed its initial offer documents with the regulator in November when there were a slew of IPOs and listings of new-age internet companies such as Zomato, Nykaa, PolicyBazaar and Paytm.
Wellness Forever Medicare is an omnichannel retail pharmacy that is present in key cities and towns of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. It plans to raise Rs 1,500-1,600 crore through its IPO, according to a report by news agency PTI.
It filed its draft papers with SEBI on October 1 last year. The IPO consists of a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating to Rs 400 crore and an offer for sale up to 16,044,709 equity shares, as per the DRHP.
As part of OFS, up to 7,20,000 equity shares will be offloaded by Ashraf Mohammed Biran, up to 720,000 equity shares by Gulshan Haresh Bhahtiani, up to 120,000 equity shares by Mohan Ganpat Chavan and up to 14,484,709 equity shares by other existing shareholders.
Recently, the pharmacy chain announced the nomination of three new independent directors – Avani Davda, Ranjit Shahani, and Kewal Handa – to its board of directors, with broad experience in banking, healthcare, and retail.
The CMR Green Tech is a metal recycling company and its offer comprises fresh issuance of shares worth Rs 300 crore and an OFS of 33,414,138 equity shares by promoters and investors, according to the DRHP.
Those offering shares in the OFS include promoters – Gauri Shankar Agarwala who will sell 34.33 lakh equity shares, Kalawati Agarwal will offload up to 33.45 lakh equity shares and Mohan Agarwal and Pratibha Agarwal will divest up to 30.09 lakh equity shares each – and investor – Global Scrap Processors – will sell up to 1.99 crore equity shares.
Proceeds from the fresh issue will be utilised towards the payment of debt and general corporate purposes.
-with PTI inputs
