Veeda Clinical Research files draft papers with SEBI to raise Rs 831 crore via IPO

NEW DELHI: Clinical research organisation Veeda Clinical Research has filed preliminary papers with capital markets regulator Sebi to raise a little over Rs 831 crore through an initial public offering (IPO).

The initial share-sale will consist of an issuance of fresh equity shares worth up to Rs 331.60 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of Rs 500 crore by promoters and existing shareholders, according to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP).

Investors participating in OFS include CX Alternative Investment Fund aggregating up to Rs 8.08 crore, Rs 90.19 crore by Arabelle Financial Services, Rs 259.77 crore by Bondway Investment Inc. , Rs 0.04 crore by Stevey International Corporation and Rs 141.93 crore by Basil Private Limited.

The company intends to utilise net proceeds from the fresh issue for repayment of the debt, funding capital expenditure, funding further acquisition of subsidiary Bioneeds India, funding working capital requirements besides general corporate purposes.

The Ahmedabad-based company, which is backed by CX Partners, in June announced raising USD 16 million from PE firm Sabre Partners, and high networth individuals including Pranab Mody of JB Chemicals, Havells India family office, Nikhil Vora of Sixth Sense Ventures and Arjun Bhartia of Jubilant Group among others.

Furthermore, to support its capabilities and to offer top-notch clinical service for novel drugs, Veeda acquired a 50.1 per cent stake in Bangalore-based Bioneeds India, after it acquired a substantial minority stake in the company during March and July 2021.

Veeda, grown from a single facility in 2004 to now having four facilities and the capability to process 1 lakh samples per month, is one of the leading independent full service clinical research organisation (CRO) in India.

It specialises in the focused segment of bio availability/bio equivalence (BA/BE) studies. In addition to BA/BE tests, it offers a broad range of services across most aspects of the drug development and drug launch value chain throughout the global markets including North America, Europe and Asia.

As of March 2021, Veeda has conducted more than 3,500 trials and developed over 1,000 bio-analytical methods spread across generics.

It has also been able to complete over 85 global inspections with regulatory authorities including USFDA, WHO and DGCI. For fiscal 2021, Veeda Clinical Research reported a revenue of Rs 195.81 crore and net profit of Rs 62.97 crore.

SBI Capital Markets, ICICI Securities, JM Financial and Systematix Corporate Services are the book running lead managers to the issue.