Apollo Hospitals takes QIP route to raise Rs 330 cr

Apollo Hospitals today said it had initiated a share sale to qualified institutional buyers to raise up to Rs 330 crore, which the firm plans to use for expansion purposes.

The company, which has fixed the floor price of the issue at Rs 491.29 per equity share, started the placement of shares with qualified institutional buyers from July 14.

"We are expecting a robust sale of shares in the QIP issue," Apollo Hospitals Chief Financial Officer Akhileswaran Krishnan told PTI.

He said the process would be closed by Monday and would result in equity dilution of about 5%.

Nomura Financial Advisory & Securities (India), Enam Securities and Citibank are the managers to the share sale, he added.

Krishnan said the Rs 330 crore to be raised through the QIP issue would be used to part-fund a Rs 1,100 crore investment to add another 2,400 beds by March, 2014.

"The rest of the capital would be raised through debt and internal accruals," he added.

Under the expansion plan, the company has already invested nearly Rs 270 crore, he added.

Asked by when the company would tie up the rest of the funds, he said: "We would wait for market conditions to improve and interest rates to soften to raise the rest of the funds through debt."

Apollo Hospitals operates over 8,500 beds across 54 hospitals in the country.

Shares of Apollo Hospitals were being quoted at Rs 499 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange in late afternoon trade today, up 0.82% from their previous close.