MedPlus Health IPO opens today, should you subscribe?

New Delhi: Pharmacy retail chain MedPlus Health Services’ Rs 1,398-crore initial share sale opens on Monday. The IPO comprises fresh issuance of equity shares worth Rs 600 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to equity shares aggregating up to Rs 798.30 crore by the promoter and existing shareholders.

MedPlus on Friday said it has mobilised Rs 418 crore from anchor investors ahead of its initial share sale that opens for public subscription on Monday.

The company has allotted 52.51 lakh equity shares to anchor investors at Rs 796 apiece, aggregating to Rs 417.98 crore, according to a circular uploaded on the BSE website.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BlackRock Global Funds, Fidelity, Nomura, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, HFFC Life Insurance Company, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company and SBI Life Insurance Co Ltd, SBI Mutual Fund (MF) and Aditya Birla Sun Life MF are among the anchor investors.

The issue includes a reservation of equity shares worth Rs 5 crore for the company's employees, who will receive those shares at a discount of Rs 78 per share to the final issue price.

The issue with a price band of Rs 780-796 a share will open for public subscription on December 13 and conclude on December 15.

Proceeds of the fresh issue will be used for funding the working capital requirements of the company's subsidiary Optival.

Half of the issue size has been reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), 15 per cent for non-institutional investors and 35 per cent for retail investors.

Investors can bid for a minimum of 18 equity shares and in multiples thereof.

MedPlus was founded in 2006 by Gangadi Madhukar Reddy, who is the company's managing director and chief executive officer.

The Hyderabad-based pharmacy retailer offers a wide range of products, including pharmaceutical and wellness products, such as medicines, vitamins, medical devices and test kits, and FMCG products like home and personal care items, including toiletries, baby care products, soaps and detergents and sanitisers.

Medplus was also the first pharmacy retailer in India to offer an omnichannel platform and continues to scale up its retail store network.

The company maintains a strong focus on scaling up its store network, having grown from operating initial 48 stores in Hyderabad at the conception of the business to operating India's second-largest pharmacy retail network of over 2,000 stores distributed across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Odisha, West Bengal and Maharashtra, as of March 31, 2021.

Axis Capital, Credit Suisse Securities (India), Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) and Edelweiss Financial Services are the book running lead managers to the issue.

The equity shares are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE. 

With PTI Inputs