Wockhardt Hospitals is entering the capital market with an issue of 29-million equity shares at a price band fixed between Rs 280 and Rs 310 per share, the company said on Tuesday.
"We expect to raise around Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion) from the Initial Public Offering for construction of greenfield and brownfield hospitals of the company over the next two years costing around Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion).
Around Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) will be used to prepay our debts," Wockhardt Hospitals Managing Director Vishal Bali told reporters in Mumbai.
The issue opens on January 31 and closes on February 5. The company has also made a pre-IPO placement aggregating Rs 149.33 crore (Rs 1.49 billion), which it proposes to utilise towards the objects of the issue.
"Wockhardt has speciality hospitals in orthopaedic and cancer. We are present in large cities, but now we are moving to tier II cities where such speciality health facilities are not available," Bali said.
The company's six of the existing facilities are "greenfield", which the company or the group companies have constructed. It operates the remaining nine facilities as "brownfield", which means that it refurbishes, equips and operates hospitals located on the premises of others pursuant to revenue sharing or lease arrangements.
"We have six greenfield projects in operation and five planned, while in brownfield projects, 9 are under operation and 12 are planned," Chairman Habil Korakiwala said, adding three new hospitals would be added in Mumbai.
