Ugandan unit of Cipla raises $43.8 mln in IPO - Renaissance Capital

Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Ltd (CQCIL), majority owned by India's third-largest drugmaker, sold 657 million shares equivalent to 18 per cent of the firm's total equity. Each share in the IPO was priced at 256.5 shillings.

KAMPALA: The Ugandan unit of India's pharmaceutical giant Cipla raised 167 billion Ugandan shillings ($43.8 million) from its oversubscribed initial public offering (IPO), an investment bank that helped advise on the transaction said.

Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Ltd (CQCIL), majority owned by India's third-largest drugmaker, sold 657 million shares equivalent to 18 per cent of the firm's total equity. Each share in the IPO was priced at 256.5 shillings.

John Porter, the chief business officer at investment bank Renaissance Capital, told Reuters interest came from local and international investors.

"The offering has been oversubscribed with the major part of the demand coming from blue-chip Sub-Saharan Africa investors," Porter said, speaking during a function to launch the firm's debut trading on Uganda Securities Exchange (USE).

He did not say by how much the IPO was oversubscribed.

Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Ltd, established in 2005, has a factory in Uganda's capital Kampala and makes a range of drugs including antiretrovirals, anti-malaria and drugs to treat Hepatitis B and C. Most of the drugs are sold in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The IPO is the first on Ugandan bourse, a small exchange of about 17 equities, since 2012 when the country's sole power distributor Umeme Ltd went public.