Akums Drugs IPO: Pharma company's Rs 1,857-crore initial public offering to open on July 30

Akum Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd on Thursday said it has fixed a price band of Rs 646 to Rs 679 per share for raising Rs 1,857 crore through an initial public offering (IPO).

The initial share-sale will open for public subscription on July 30 and conclude on August 1 and the bidding for anchor investors will open for a day on July 29, the company announced.

The company's IPO is a combination of fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 680 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of 1.73 crore shares valued Rs 1,177 crore, at the upper-end of the price band, by promoters and an existing investor.

Those selling shares in the OFS are Sanjeev Jain, Sandeep Jain and Ruby QC Investment Holdings Pte Ltd.

The company has reserved shares worth Rs 15 crore for its employees in the public issue.

Proceeds from the fresh issue will be used to repay debt, to fund working capital requirements of the company, to pursue inorganic growth initiatives through acquisition and for general corporate purposes.

Brokerage houses have pegged the company's market capitalisation at Rs 10,697 crore post-issue.

The company said that 75 per cent of the issue size has been reserved for qualified institutional buyers, 15 per cent for non-institutional investors and the remaining 10 per cent for retail investors.

Investors can bid for a minimum of 22 equity shares and in multiples thereof.

Founded in 2004, Akums is a pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) offering a comprehensive range of pharmaceutical products and services in India and overseas.

As of September 30, 2023, key clients for the company's CDMO business include Alembic Pharmaceuticals, Alkem Laboratories, Cipla, Dabur India, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Hetero Healthcare, Ipca Laboratories, Mankind Pharma, MedPlus Health Services, Micro Labs, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Natco Pharma, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, and Amishi Consumer Technologies (The Mom's Co).

ICICI Securities, Axis Capital, Citigroup Global Markets India and Ambit Pvt Ltd are the book-running lead managers for the issue.