Adar Poonawalla-backed pharmacy chain Wellness Forever files for IPO

Wellness Forever Medicare Ltd, a leading retail pharmacy and wellness network, has filed a draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with markets watchdog Sebi for an initial share sale.

The size of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the company, backed by Serum Institute’s Adar Poonawalla, is likely to be in the range of ₹1,500-1,600 crore, according to merchant banking sources.

Apart from a fresh issue worth up to ₹400 crores, there will be an Offer for Sale (OFS) wherein shares will be offloaded by promoters — Ashraf Mohammed Biran, Gulshan Haresh Bakhtiani and Mohan Ganpat Chavan — and other shareholders.

The proceeds from the fresh issue will be utilised for funding capital expenditure for setting up of new stores as well as incremental working capital requirements, repayment/ pre-payment of borrowings and for general corporate purposes, according to the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP).

The OFS will include sale of up to 1.60 crore equity shares.

Around 7.20 lakh shares each will be on offer by Biran and Bakhtiani. Besides, Chavan will offload up to 1.20 lakh shares and up to 144.85 lakh shares by other existing shareholders.

IIFL Securities, Ambit Pvt Ltd, DAM Capital Advisors Ltd, and HDFC Bank are book running lead managers to the issue.

In recent months, there has been a flurry of activities in the IPO market that also coincided with the stock market touching new peaks.