Adar Poonawalla-Backed Wellness Forever Pharmacy Chain Files For IPO
The Mumbai-based brand Wellness Forever is the country’s third-largest retail pharmacy by number of stores.
Adar Poonawalla-backed Wellness Forever Medicare Ltd. plans to raise Rs 1,500-1,600 crore through its initial public offering to raise capital for expansion and repay debt.
The pharmacy chain's offer comprises a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating Rs 400 crore and an offer-for-sale of up to 1.60 crore equity shares, according to its draft red herring prospectus filed with the market regulator on Friday.
Promoters Ashraf Mohammed Biran and Gulshan Haresh Bhahtiani are offering up to 7.2 lakh shares each, while Mohan Ganpat Chavan will offering up to 1.2 lakh shares. Other shareholders, including Poonawalla's Serum Institute of India and Rising Sun Holdings, are offering a total up to 144.85 lakh shares.
IIFL Securities Ltd., Ambit Pvt, DAM Capital Advisors Ltd., and HDFC Bank Ltd. are book running lead managers to the issue.
The Mumbai-based brand Wellness Forever is the country’s third-largest retail pharmacy by number of stores. It has a network 236 outlets in 23 cities across Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka.
Use Of Proceeds
From the proceeds of the fresh issue, the company will use:
Rs 70.2 crore as capital expenditure for setting up new outlets.
Rs 100 crore to repay debt.
Rs 121.9 crore for working capital requirements.
The rest for general corporate purposes.
Wellness Forever's total revenue from operations rose from Rs 863.3 crore in fiscal 2019-20 to Rs 924 crore in FY21 versus.
Its after-tax net loss widened from Rs 53.2 crore in FY20 to Rs 348.5 crore in FY21.