Omni-channel retail pharmacy chain Wellness Forever Medicare Ltd, backed by Adar Poonawalla, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO), which will sell a majority of its shares to its shareholder Serum Institute of India.
The IPO will include a new issue of ₹400 crore and offer for sale of 16.04 million shares from existing shareholders and promoters. Serum Institute of India, which owns 13.2 per cent stake in the business, is selling its stake in the IPO for up to 35.5 lakh shares.
Serum CEO Adar Poonawalla is also selling 15.2 lakh shares through his arm Rising Sun Holdings. After the issue, Serum Institute will have only 40,000 shares.
Wellness Forever was founded in 2008 by Ashraf Biran, Gulshan Bakhtiani and Mohan Chavan.
Biran and Bakhtiyani are selling 7.20 lakh shares, while Chavan is selling around 12 lakh shares.
Mumbai-based Allana Group, which holds a 6.67% stake, is selling nearly half of its stake in the company.
The Allana Group exports processed food products and agricultural commodities, including frozen meat, processed and frozen fruit and vegetable products, coffee, spices and cereals.
Amit Patni (co-founder of Patni Computers, which was sold to iGate) is selling 3 lakh shares through Rai Global Investments. Investor Rajiv Dadlani is selling around 5.22 lakh shares.
The company will use approx. ₹70.20 crore from IPO for capital expenditure and setting up of new stores.
As of June 2021, the firm had 236 operational stores in 23 cities in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa, serving a registered customer base of 6.7 million customers.
The Mumbai-based firm will use ₹100 crore for loan repayment. As of August 2021, it has consolidated outstanding borrowings ₹153.78 crores.
The firm will also use ₹121.90 crore from proceeds to finance the incremental working capital requirement. As of August 2021, its fund-based and non-fund-based working capital facilities were ₹97.07 crore and ₹3.49 crores respectively.
IIFL Securities, Ambit Pvt, DAM Capital Advisors and HDFC Bank are the book running lead managers of the issue.
For the financial year 2021, its total income was ₹941.36 crore against ₹867.10 crore a year ago. Net loss for the period widened to ₹34.85 Cr Vs ₹5.32 crore last year.
Wellness Forever is the third largest retail pharmacy and wellness network by number of stores, leading western India in terms of total revenue, it says.
The firm operates a large omni-channel, hyperlocal retail network under its “Wellness Forever” brand and offers an assortment of merchandise comprising approximately 91,500 pharmaceutical and wellness products, according to its DRHP.
Tags: Wellness Forever, Adar Poonawalla, Serum Institute of India, Allana Group, Ashraf Biran, Gulshan Bakhtiania, Mohan Chavan
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