Thyrocare Technologies dips 7% as PharmaEasy offers to acquire 66% stake

Docon Technologies, along with API Holdings, the parent company of unicorn PharmEasy, also made an open offer for acquisition of additional 26% stake in Thyrocare at a price of Rs 1,300 per share

Shares of Thyrocare Technologies dipped 7 per cent to Rs 1,351 on the BSE in Monday's intra-day after Docon Technologies, along with API Holdings, the parent company of unicorn PharmEasy, an online medical platform, will acquire 66.1 per cent equity stake in diagnostic chain firm for Rs 4,546 crore. They also made an open offer for acquisition of additional 26 per cent stake in Thyrocare at a price of Rs 1,300 per share for Rs 1,788.16 crore.

This would be the first ever acquisition of a listed company, by an Indian unicorn, the companies said in a joint statement. "It is the third big-ticket transaction involving an e-pharmacy company," they said. 

In the past one month, the stock of Thyrocare Technologies has outperformed the market by surging 45 per cent, as against a 3 per cent gain in the S&P BSE Sensex till Friday. It had hit a 52-week high of Rs 1,465.90 on June 25, 2021. Trading volumes on the counter nearly doubled with a combined 1.9 million equity shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE till 10:24 am. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.04 per cent at 52,903 points.

According to a Business Standard report, investors in Thyrocare may not gain much by staying put in the company following the Rs 4,546-crore buyout of the promoter’s stake by API Holdings.

"Given the current market price, which is at a 11 per cent premium to acquisition cost and open offer by API Holdings, investors in Thyrocare are better off selling their shares... The lack of clarity from the new management about the future course of action (offer for sale and delisting among others) is an additional risk for investors," the report suggests. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT
 
Thyrocare is the largest B2B player in the diagnostics space and has a network of 3,330+ collection centres across in 2,000+ towns in India.