Citi Pharma IPO raises Rs2.32bln

KARACHI: Citi Pharma in its initial public offering (IPO) has raised Rs2.32 billion, making it the second pharmaceutical IPO in 23 years and the single largest of 2021 so far, a statement said on Wednesday.

The book-building process of Citi Pharma’s Initial Public Offer (IPO) has concluded with an oversubscription of two times, according to Topline Securities, advisor and book runner of the issue.

“The IPO received an overwhelming response from institutional investors and high-net worth individuals as the strike price clocked in at Rs32/share, 14.3 percent higher than the floor price of Rs28,” the leading API ( active pharmaceutical ingredients) manufacturer of the country said in its statement.

Several brokerages had had issued almost unanimous calls to ‘subscribe,’ which resulted in investor demand amounting to Rs4 billion against the IPO’s book-building size of Rs2 billion. Investors who bid at Rs32 will get approximately 10 percent of their bid quantity.

“The response to the book building was far better than our expectations” said Mohammed Sohail of Topline Securities.

In the last IPO (Organic Meat) managed by Topline, investors had made a gain of close to 90 percent in a year, Sohail said.