Diagnostics chain Metropolis Healthcare, which is launching a Rs 1,200-crore initial public offering (IPO) this week, Monday said it is looking at acquisitions as an integral part of its growth strategy.
Besides acquisitions, the company is also focusing on robust organic growth and new avenues for expansion going forward.
The IPO opens on April 3 and closes on April 5, 2019. The price band has been fixed at Rs 877-880 per equity share.
When asked about the reasons for the launch of the IPO, Metropolis Healthcare Chairman Sushil Shah told PTI: "The most important reason was that in case going forward if we have a very big acquisition opportunity we will have ease of borrowing from banks ... It is easier to do this when one is a public listed company."
Other reasons were to give partial exit to Carlyle and some funding was needed to pare some personal debt, he added.
There is no debt on the company, Shah said.
Going forward, the company will focus on business-to-consumer (B2C) expansion and will also focus on strengthening its presence in 13 key cities where it already has a strong presence, Shah said.
For this, the company has identified five focus cities Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Surat and Bengaluru and eight seeding cities where it has a decent presence, he added.
As of December 31, 2018, the laboratory network of Metropolis Healthcare consisted of 115 clinical laboratories.
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