Opto Circuits (India) Ltd. (OCIL), a leading global manufacturer of non-invasive healthcare equipments, is offering fresh equity shares worth Rs 100 crore through the 100 per cent book-building process. The issue will enable the company to go in for Brownfield expansion and overseas acquisitions. A portion of this issue will be used for setting up a world-class R&D facility in Bangalore.

"The expansion of manufacturing facilities has been necessitated because of the huge order inflows that we have started getting from OEMs directly. Earlier, we had been planning to go in for a GDR issue. But we feel that an offering in the Indian markets would be a better proposition for us at this stage. R&D also assumes significance as we are looking to get IPRs for a range of new products, and we are also looking to get into a few new application areas. We will be filing the draft red herring prospectus for the public offering soon with SEBI, and we hope to be hitting the markets in December 2005/ January 2006." said Vinod Ramnani, chairman and managing sirector.
Earlier, in the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the company held in mid November, the shareholders had approved the increase in the authorised capital from the existing Rs 35 crore to Rs 50 crore.

OCIL plans to utilise the proceeds to fund its ambitious overseas acquisition plans. "We are in the process of finalizing an acquisition in the next few days, and another in the first quarter of FY07. We are in advanced stage of negotiation with one US-based company and have in fact given them an offer too. These acquisitions will substantially help us improve our market share in the global markets." said Ramnani.

Incidentally, OCIL has been growing aggressively in the past by acquiring companies locally as well as globally. "This policy of organic as well as inorganic growth will continue," added Ramnani.

The company has recently signed a LoI (Letter of Intent) to acquire an European company that manufactures cardiac stents of various types, including drug eluting coronary stents used in critical cardiac care.