Leading PE firms and banks such as ICICI Venture, Yes Bank, GM Financial and Standard Chartered are learnt to be in talks with Ranbaxy’s diagnostic chain, SRL Ranbaxy, for a minority stake ahead of the company’s proposed IPO.
SRL Ranbaxy has received expressions of interest (EoI) from several financial funds and talks are at a fairly advanced stage. However, the company has not finalised the financial details or the stake it would offload before its public issue.
“The equity that the company will divest to financial funds will be finalised after the valuation of SRL Ranbaxy is worked out,” sources said. SRL Ranbaxy plans to raise around Rs 200-Rs 250 crore through its maiden IPO and may dilute 10-20% to PE funds as a pre-IPO arrangement.
When contacted, SRL Ranbaxy CEO Sanjeev Chaudhry declined to name the firms but said: “There are a host of financial fund who are interested in investing in the company.” SRL Ranbaxy will use the fund to finance its organic and inorganic expansion plans in India and abroad.
The company is looking for acquisition in the range of $5-$10 million in the US, UK and the Gulf regions. It plans to scale up network to over 100 laboratories in the next few years. SRL Ranbaxy, a fully-owned firm by the promoters of the Ranbaxy Group, is also considering forging a strategic alliance with its group company retail chain, Fortis Healthworld, wherein the latter would also divest some of its stake.
Source: Economic Times