Of the total shares on the offer, around 1.34 crore shares will be offered through book building and the fixed portion is around 14.88 lakh shares.Cadila has also roped in underwriters - JM Morgan Stanley, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company and DSP Merrill Lynch - for both the book building and fixed portion. The underwriters are also the book running lead managers to the issue.

The public issue of Cadila could be the highest priced in the recent past after Glenmark Pharmaceuticals' IPO at a price of Rs 180. Glenmark, whose IPO received an overwhelming response from investors, has in fact set the stage for the other pharma companies to tap the market. Cadila is taking the book building route to tap the market and is the first Indian pharma company to do so. This also gives Cadila an added advantage compared to Glenmark, whose IPO was not through the book building route, as the company can fetch maximum possible premium for its float in a market where investors started fancying pharma issues.

Cadila Healthcare, a part of the Zydus group, is one of the leading pharma companies in India. Since for the past two years, the company has been increasingly focussing on therapeutic segments like cardiovasculars, gastro-intestinals, biologicals, anti-inflammatory and anti-infective, according to Pankaj R Patel, managing director and CEO of Cadila.

Cadila is now looking for acquisitions and exploring possibilities of setting up 100 per cent subsidiaries in South Africa and New Zealand. The public issue is for part financing the ongoing projects which include a new plant at Moraiya, the new dedicated bulk drug plant at Ankleshwar and the state-of-the-art R&D centre. The total project cost is estimated at Rs 270 crore. A part of the public issue proceeds will be used for acquisitions and according to Pankaj Patel, the amount could be as high as Rs 250 crore.

The company has a current market share of 2.5 per cent in the pharmaceutical industry. ``We aim to become one of the top three pharmaceutical company in the country by 2005 and hope to raise the total market share to 4 per cent,'' Pankaj Patel said. Cadila currently invests around 4 per cent of the total turnover in research and development and the figure, according to him, will touch 7 per cent in the next three years.

The company has eight well-established brands under its belt and is preparing for filing applications for patents for a couple of brands, he added. The company has reported a turnover of Rs 361 crore for fiscal 1999 with a profit of Rs 36.25 crore. For the current fiscal, turnover is likely to touch the Rs 475-crore mark and net profit would be around Rs 40 crore. The projected turnover for fiscal 2001 and fiscal 2002 is Rs 560 crore and 655 crore, respectively. Net profit is projected at Rs 70 crore and Rs 84 crore for these respective years.