SRL withdraws draft IPO prospectus to resubmit again

Super Religare Laboratories (SRL), part of the Fortis Healthcare group, today said it has withdrawn its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus filed with market regulator Sebi due to a change in the shareholding pattern of the company.

"As a result of Fortis Healthcare (India) becoming controlling shareholder of SRL, the company has withdrawn its current DRHP application for making necessary revisions and changes and the relevant parts of the DRHP to reflect the revised ownership pattern," SRL CEO Sanjeev K Chaudhary said.

"The company proposes to resubmit the revised DRHP application with an update of its financial results for the financial year ended March 31, 2011 in in the next 4-6 weeks," Chaudhary added.

SRL had filed a Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) in February this year with the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for a public issue of 28 million shares.

Even as SRL was awaiting the approval, Fortis Healthcare (India), promoted by billionaire brothers Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, had acquired 74.59% stake early this month in it for Rs 803 crore.

Later private equity firm Avigo Capital Partners had picked up 9.27% stake in SRL in a pre-IPO placement for an aggregate amount of nearly Rs 100 crore. Another PE firm Sabre Partners had also invested Rs 50 crore.

SRL's present network consists of eight reference laboratories, seven centres of excellence, 181 network laboratories (164 pathology, 17 radiology), 15 wellness centres and 888 collection centres.