Temasek-backed PharmEasy's owner files for 62.5b rupee India IPO

[HONG KONG] API Holdings, owner of India's largest online pharmacy PharmEasy, has filed for an initial public offering to raise as much as 62.5 billion rupees (S$1.1 billion), joining a flurry of listings in the South Asian nation as the stock market rallies.

The company, backed by TPG and Temasek Holdings, filed a draft red herring prospectus on Wednesday (Nov 10). API Holdings may do a pre-IPO placement of as much as 12.5 billion rupees, in which case the IPO size will be reduced accordingly, the prospectus says.

India is seeing a record year for first-time share sales, with US$12.3 billion raised so far, overtaking every other full-year tally, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Startups have taken advantage of a market rally during which the benchmark index more than doubled from a March 2020 low and investor demand to go public on Indian exchanges strengthened.

Paytm is currently taking orders for what is set to be India's biggest IPO at 183 billion rupees. However, the overwhelming investor interest that had been seen in recent offerings, such as beauty startup Nykaa or food-delivery platform Zomato, seems to be petering out as Paytm's sale was still not fully subscribed on the second day.

PharmEasy provides a range of services spanning digital tools and information on wellness, teleconsultations, diagnostic and radiology tests and treatment deliveries, according to its prospectus. It posted a loss of 6.45 billion rupees on total income of 23.6 billion rupees for the year ended March 31.

API Holdings plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to prepay or repay all or a portion of outstanding borrowings, fund organic growth initiatives, pursue inorganic growth through acquisitions and other strategic initiatives and general corporate purposes.

Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Securities, Citigroup and JM Financial are book running lead managers.

BLOOMBERG