Syngene International Ltd has obtained the approval of the Registrar of Companies (RoC) for its red herring prospectus, for an Initial Public Offering (IPO). The IPO is an offer for sale (OFS) by Biocon Limited which along with its subsidiary, Biocon Research Limited, currently holds an 84.5 per cent equity stake in Syngene. The company has already obtained necessary approvals from SEBI and FIPB.

The offer will open for subscription on July 27, 2015 and will close on July 29, 2015. The company and the selling shareholder may, in consultation with the BRLMs, consider participation by anchor investors in accordance with the SEBI ICDR Regulations. The anchor investor bid/offer period shall be one working day prior to the bid/ offer opening date.

The price band for the offer has been fixed between Rs.240 and Rs.250 per equity share of Rs.10 each.

Commenting on the development, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson & managing director, Biocon Ltd, said “The ROC approval of the red herring prospectus is an important milestone for Syngene and we are extremely excited to take forward the IPO process. We believe that Syngene has earned a global reputation in the area of integrated discovery and development services for novel small molecules and biologics and are confident of the value proposition that the company offers.”

“We are an experienced CRO with a proven track record of providing quality discovery, development and manufacturing services for new molecular entities to bio-pharma and life science companies around the world. We believe we are very well-positioned to benefit from the growth in the global CRAM’s market and see this listing a natural next step in our evolution,” said Peter Bains, chief executive officer, Syngene.

Syngene has 200 million equity shares outstanding and the offer will constitute 11 per cent of the post-offer paid-up equity share capital of Syngene and this includes a reservation of 2 million equity shares for subscription by Biocon shareholders. The net offer (being the offer minus the Biocon shareholder reservation portion) will constitute 10 per cent of the post-offer paid-up equity share capital of Syngene.

The issue will be undertaken through the book building process wherein 50 per cent of the net offer shall be allotted on a proportionate basis to qualified institutional buyers, at least 15 per cent of the net offer shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to non-institutional investors and atleast 35 per cent of the net offer shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to retail individual investors.

The equity shares being offered are proposed to be listed on the BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited. Axis Capital Limited, Credit Suisse Securities (India) Private Limited and Jefferies India Private Limited are the book running lead managers to the issue and Karvy Computershare Private Limited is the registrar to the issue.