This story is from December 31, 2007

Intas Pharma plans Rs 300-400 crore IPO

Nimish Shukla & Swati Bharadwaj-Chand / TNN / Dec 31, 2007, 00:08 IST

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According to sources, the company has begun the groundwork for the IPO and approached merchant bankers a couple of months ago.

AHMEDABAD: In a move that could well pave the way for a family settlement for the Chudgars of Intas group, privately held Ahmedabad-based Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd is now mulling going public with an initial public offering of around Rs 300-400 crore.
According to sources, the company has begun the groundwork for the IPO and approached merchant bankers a couple of months ago with a view to entering the markets before the end of the current financial year 2007-08.
When contacted, Intas Pharmaceuticals CFO Jayesh Shah admitted that the company was indeed mulling an IPO. He however refused to divulge the size of the proposed IPO.
"An IPO is on the cards, but nothing is finalised yet. We would like to go for the IPO in 2008 to raise funds for overseas acquisitions in the US and Europe, expansion of manufacturing capacities as well as over 200 product filings in the US and European markets put together," said Shah.

"We are investing around Rs 40-50 crore in setting up an export-oriented formulations plant at Zydus Cadilas pharma SEZ at Changodar, even as we have acquired land for setting up a formulations plant at Sikkim at a cost of around Rs 25 crore. Both these plants are expected to be up and running over the next two years," he added.
Currently the company has three plants spread over Matoda and Vatva in Ahmedabad and Dehradun in Uttaranchal. While admitting that the companys plans for an early IPO had received a setback after a recent income tax raid on the company and its premises in late October 2007, Shah however denied any family rift.

However, sources in the know said that apart from raising funds for expansion purposes, the IPO could also pave the way for the Chudgar family to reach a settlement between the brothers and provide an exit route to certain stakeholders.
Currently, the Chudgar brothers Dr Urmish, Nimish and Binish, along with other family members hold 87.5% equity in Intas Pharmaceuticals. The remaining 12.5% equity is held by Chrys Capital, which had acquired it from ICICI Ventures in 2004-05 in a deal handled by Enam Financial. ICICI Ventures had acquired this stake in Intas Pharmaceuticals in 1996. In fact, as part of the family settlement, the group has already hived off the erstwhile biotech arm of the company into a separate entity Intas Biopharmaceuticals in late 2006.
Incidentally, Kotak Private Equity group has recently picked up around 15% equity for $10 million in Intas Biopharmaceuticals, which is now headed by Dr Urmish Chudgar, who also heads the groups blood bank initiative Prathma.

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