China's Fosun Kicks off biggest pharma IPO in India

[HONG KONG] Gland Pharma and its shareholders are looking to raise as much as 64.5 billion rupees (S$1.18 billion) in what would be India's biggest initial public offering (IPO) by a pharmaceutical firm.

The company and existing holders including Fosun Pharma Industrial are selling as many as 43.2 million shares in the offering, according to terms of the deal obtained by Bloomberg News. The shares are marketed at 1,490 rupees to 1,500 rupees each.

At US$871 million, Gland Pharma's IPO would be the largest by a pharmaceutical firm in India, way above the US$260 million share sale by Eris Lifesciences in 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It would also be the country's second biggest this year after SBI Cards & Payment Services' US$1.44 billion offering.

Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) acquired a 74 per cent stake in Gland Pharma for about US$1.1 billion in 2017. Fosun Pharma, backed by Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang, had originally sought to buy an 86 per cent stake in the closely-held Indian drugmaker from an investor group including KKR & Co. However, a stake of such a size must be signed off by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which was poised to reject the move, Bloomberg News reported at that time.

Gland Pharma's IPO consists of up to 34.9 million secondary shares from existing shareholders, according to the terms. Fosun Pharma is planning to divest as many as 19.4 million shares in the IPO, while Gland Celsus Bio Chemicals, Empower Discretionary Trust and Nilay Discretionary Trust are selling 15.5 million shares in total.

The company plans to take orders from anchor investors on Nov 6 and to start the public offering on Nov 9, the terms show. It targets to list in Mumbai on Nov 20.

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Citigroup, Haitong Securities, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Nomura Holdings are arranging the deal.

BLOOMBERG