PharmEasy parent API Holdings files papers for Rs 6,250 crore IPO

Bengaluru: API Holdings, the parent of online pharmacy PharmEasy, has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with market regulator Sebi for a ₹6,250 crore initial public offering (IPO) with a fresh issue of shares.

The company may also consider raising ₹1,250 crore via a private placement of shares before filing its red herring prospectus (RHP) and, if that happens, the issue size will be altered accordingly, it said.

PharmEasy said it will use ₹1,929 crore from the IPO proceeds to repay or prepay borrowings and ₹1,259 crore to fund organic growth initiatives, besides allocating ₹1,500 crore on inorganic growth opportunities through acquisitions and other strategic initiatives.

ET reported in its October 30 edition that PharmEasy was days away from filing its DRHP to raise ₹6,000-7,000 crore through a public issue which will be fully through fresh issuance of shares.

As reported by ET in that edition, PharmEasy said in its DRHP it has acquired just under a 50% stake in enterprise resource planning firm Marg ERP for ₹254 crore.

While PharmEasy made the Thyrocare acquisition of over $600 million in June, it has also bought multiple firms like Aknamed and Medlife in the last one year.

For PharmEasy, marketing and promotions to increase awareness of its brand and services would be a key investment area.

For the financial year 2021, API Holdings' total income jumped more than threefold to ₹2,360 crore from ₹737 crore the previous year. Its losses widened 90% to ₹641 crore. In the three months ended June 2021, it clocked income of ₹1,207 crore with a loss of ₹314 crore, the DRHP showed.