Dishman Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals Ltd will tender 34.33 lakh (3.43 million) equity shares of Rs 10 each through an initial public offering, which opens on March 29 and closes on April 7, 2004.

The price band of the issue is Rs 155-175 per equity share and is being made through a 100 per cent book building process, Dishman Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals managing director J R Vyas said in Mumbai on Thursday.

The IPO would constitute 25.01 per cent of the fully-diluted post issue paid-up capital of the company and not less than 25 per cent of the issue would be made available for allocation on a proportionate basis to retail bidders, he said.

Vyas' holding in the company would fall to 75 per cent post-issue from the present 100 per cent, with 25 per cent of the total equity being ear-marked for the public.

The company intends to raise between Rs 53.21-60.07 crore (Rs 532.1-600.7 million) from the issue, he said.

The proceeds from the issue would be used for its proposed expansion programmes, like site development [Rs 40 lakh (Rs 4 million)], setting up an active pharma ingredients plant [Rs 11.75 crore (Rs 117.5 million)], intermediate plant [Rs 6.25 crore (Rs 62.5 million)], setting up an R&D plant [Rs 9.5 crore (Rs 95 million)] among others.

The company had planned a total project expenditure of Rs 52.5 crore (Rs 525 million), which also includes working capital margin, expansion of existing facilities and utilities, Vyas said.

Dishman is also planning to enter the Japanese market on a contract manufacturing basis for its Quats product.