Thyrocare to raise nearly Rs 480 crore through IPO

Mumbai, Apr 20 () Diagnostics company ThyrocareTechnologies today fixed the price band between Rs 420 to Rs446 crore for its initial public offering (IPO) to raiseapproximately Rs 480 crore."We have fixed the price band from Rs 420 to Rs 446 perequity share to raise funds through IPO of 100 per cent offerfor sale. At upper price band, we will raise around Rs 480crore," Thyrocare Chairman A Velumani told reporters here.The company's IPO will hit the capital markets on April 27and is scheduled to close on April 29.The firm, which runs a diagnostics laboratory chain acrossthe country, will come out with a public issue of up to10,744,708 equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash.The offer for sale is being made by the sellingshareholders. Agalia Private Ltd will offer upto 10,207,472equity shares, Sundararaju HUF and A Velumani HUF willoffer 180,000 equity shares each and up to 177,236 equityshares will be offered by Anand Velumani.Thyrocare competes with diagnostics chains such as Dr LalPathLabs, SRL Diagnostics, Metropolis Healthcare and ApolloClinic."Our strategy is to further grow our business by expandingour network of regional processing laboratories (RPL) to caterto a larger number of cities across the country. We haveopened five RPLs in New Delhi, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kolkataand Bhopal," Velumani said.The company is also developing a network of molecularimaging centers for cancer diagnosis.After the completion of the offer, the promoters andthe promoter group will own approximately 63.96 per cent ofequity share.Last year, several healthcare firms like AlkemLaboratories, Dr Lal PathLabs and Narayana Hrudayalaya had hitthe capital market, while HealthCare Global Enterprises gotlisted on the stock exchanges last month.The company has proposed to list its shares on both BSEand NSE.The issue is being managed by JM Financial InstitutionalSecurities, Edelweiss Financial Services and ICICI Securities. AP ARSABI