Trilegal, Saraf and Partners and Duane Morris & Selvam have advised on pharmaceutical company Wockhardt’s INR4.8 billion (USD57.8 million) qualified institutional placement (QIP).
Partner Richa Choudhary and counsel Avanti Kale led the Trilegal team advising Wockhardt, with the assistance of senior associate Maitreya Rajurkar, as well as associates Sanya Chaudhari, Pooja Tada and Archit Jain.
Saraf and Duane Morris counselled the book running lead manager DAM Capital Advisors. Partner Murtaza Zoomkawala led the Saraf team, acting as Indian counsel, with the assistance of senior associate Shubha Samani, and associates Rainika Malhotra, Avinash Gautam, Anushri Maskara and Yashvardhan. Duane Morris acted as special international counsel, with James Benson, head of the firm’s US capital markets and India practices, leading the team, which included senior associate Ananth Balaji Sundararaman.
Zoomkawala said, “This is the second equity capital markets transaction for Wockhardt that we have acted on – having earlier represented the lead manager on their INR7,480 million rights issue in 2022. It continues to demonstrate Saraf and Partners’ expertise in delivering legal solutions to our clients in the healthcare sector.”
Wockhardt is a leading research-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in India with operations in 45 countries and 12 manufacturing plants.
Proceeds from the QIP would be used for loan repayments, as well as the financing of clinical trials and research and development initiatives focused on novel antibiotics targeting resistant organisms.
The QIP’s marquee investors included ICICI Prudential, Tata Indian Opportunities Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund and Societe Generale.
The equity shares were priced at INR517 apiece, representing a 5% discount to the INR544.02 QIP floor price per share.
