Indian drugmakers are on the hunt for money and growth with India's Alkem Laboratories planning a $210 million initial public offering the second week of December and Ipca Laboratories saying it has launched a bid for a 26% stake in Krebs Biochemicals.
Reuters said three sources involved in the Alkem IPO confirmed the sale, adding in its report that this will be "India's third high-profile market debut in the last three months of 2015 after airline IndiGo's IPO raised $459 million and Coffee Day Enterprises raised $176 million."
While the IPO might be good news for Alkem, the company has had its share of woes in the past when the company's president got in hot water with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the sale of unapproved prescription drugs by a company subsidiary.
The company also saw $11 million in drug supplies being seized by U.S. marshals when the same subsidiary ignored FDA warnings it was selling unapproved drugs.
Meanwhile, Ipca Laboratories said it will start an offer for 26% of Hyderabad-based Krebs Biochemicals on Nov. 9, which will end on Nov. 24 and which should total about $3.01 million, according to a report from the news site India.com.
Mumbai-based Ipca in February acquired 1.8 million shares in Krebs and signed an MOU outlining plans for Ipca to acquire joint management control. It already owns 31.38% of Krebs, the report said.
Krebs specializes in chemical synthesis, fermentation and enzymatic technologies and has two U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved facilities, the report from India.com said.
- here's the story from Reuters
- and one from India.com
EJ Lane contributed to this report.