Apollo Hospitals will raise up to Rs 330 crore via qualified institutional placement for its expansion plans.
Earlier, Apollo had planned to raise Rs 900 crore through a mix of equity and debt. “Right now, we are going for equity as the interest rates in the debt market are not favourable,” said Mr A. Krishnan, CFO, Apollo Hospitals.
The QIP, which opened on Thursday, ends on Monday. “We have met with quite a few investors over the past few months and we expect good response to the QIP,” said Mr Krishnan.
Funding Expansion
The funds will be used to add 2,400 beds by FY14. This will include 900 beds in the metros and 725 beds through Apollo Reach in small towns such as Nashik, Ayanambakkam (in suburban Chennai), Nellore and Tiruchi. Three large tertiary hospitals will come up in Mumbai. Apollo's current bed strength is 8,717 across 54 hospitals. All these are greenfield projects, said Mr Krishnan.
Apollo hopes to go in for debt at a later stage when the interest regime is favourable. “Our debt equity is just 0.48. We have room for more debt,” said Mr Krishnan.
The company plans to raise the QIP at current market price. This could result in an equity dilution of about 5-6 per cent, say analysts.
The Apollo stock price ended flat at Rs 493 on Thursday.