Lahore based drug maker eyes to launch country’s biggest pharma IPO

In a bid to expand the company’s operations, Citi Pharma, the Lahore-based pharmaceutical plans to go public, in what is expected to be the biggest Initial Public Offering (IPO) by a pharmaceutical in Pakistan.

Seeking advantage of the rising trends at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), which was recently crowned among the best performing bourse in the world, Citi Pharma aims to raise over Rs 2.85 billion or USD18 million, reported Bloomberg.

The PSX started of 2021 on a bullish run as it emerged as the 2nd best performing market in the region and 7th best performing market in the world in the month of January.

“Historically we have seen healthy returns during the month of January and this month was no different. Infact KSE-100 returns (6.0%) have outperformed last 10-Yr average returns (4.1%) of January. The USD-based return for the month settled at 5.8%. 7MFY21 returns of the index have settled at 34.8% (USDbased: 41.4%),” stated Arif Habib Limited in its report.

Meanwhile, as per Citi Pharma Chief Executive Officer Rizwan Ahmed, the pharma is expected to go public in a matter of six weeks.

Back in 2018, pharmaceutical company AGP Limited successfully raised around Rs 2.8 billion from local, foreign and institutional investors'. Bids in book building were received in excess of Rs 5 billion. This OFS consisted of 35 million shares (20 million by OBS Pakistan and 15 million by Muller and Phipps Pakistan).

However, Citi Pharma wants to surpass AGP’s IPO target and as per the report plans to offer 35 percent of its equity by selling 72.7 million shares at Rs 28 per share.

The report stated that the company will use a majority chunk of its IPO funds to build a 50-bed hospital in Lahore, while the remaining be utilized to build two new plants, which will start operations by the end of this year.