Hexagon Nutrition gets Sebi’s nod to garner Rs 600-cr via IPO

Hexagon Nutrition has received capital markets regulator Sebi’s approval to raise up to Rs 600 crore through an initial public offering (IPO). The company’s public issue consists of a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating to Rs 100 crore, and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 30,113,918 equity shares, according to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP).

The OFS comprises sale of up to 77 lakh shares by Arun Purushottam Kelkar, up to 61.36 lakh shares by Subhash Purushottam Kelkar, up to 15 lakh shares by Anuradha Arun Kelkar, up to 25 lakh shares by Nutan Subhash Kelkar, up to 1.22 crore shares by Somerset Indus Healthcare Fund I Ltd and up to 73,668 shares by Mayur Sirdesai.

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Hexagon Nutrition, which filed preliminary IPO papers with Sebi in December 2021, obtained its observations letter on March 4 2022, an update with the regulator showed on Monday. In Sebi’s parlance, its observation implies its go-ahead to float the initial share-sale. As per market sources, the issue size will be approximately in the range of Rs 500-600 crore. Proceeds from fresh issuance will be used for debt payments, funding incremental working capital requirements, supporting capital expenditure for expanding an existing facility, investment in subsidiary and financing capital expenditure at the existing facility and general corporate purposes.

Mumbai-based Hexagon Nutrition is a fully integrated company engaged in product development and marketing, including research and development and nutrition manufacturing. Founded by Arun and Subash Kelkar in 1993, Hexagon Nutrition started as a micro-nutrient formulations player, and today it has moved up the value chain to develop brands like Pentasure, Obesigo and Pediagold, which are leading names in the health, wellness and clinical nutrition space.

In 2016, offshore private equity firm Somerset Indus Healthcare Fund-I, along with Mayur Anand Sardesai, an advisor and director at Somerset Health Capital Advisors, had invested Rs 25 crore for a 10 per cent stake in the company. Hexagon Nutrition had set up a trading company in South Africa in 2019 and has plans to build a facility there. The company is also setting up a factory in Uzbekistan that is expected to commence operations by the first quarter of 2022. Equirus Capital and SBI Capital Markets are the book running lead managers to the issue.