IHH Healthcare, world’s third biggest IPO, sets share price at RM2.80 to raise RM6.3bil

PETALING JAYA: IHH Healthcare Bhd, Asia's largest hospital operator has fixed its final institutional and retail price at RM2.80 a share following the completion of its book building exercise as its initial public offering (IPO) raises a whopping US$2bil (RM6.3bil).

The price is five sen below the indicative price of RM2.85/S$1.118 per share but at the upper end of the of the indicative range of RM2.67 to RM2.85 a share.

As the final retail price of RM2.80 was lower than the retail price, there would be a refund of the difference of 5.0 sen/cents per share for applicants under the Malaysia and Singapore public offering.

Based on the final offer price of RM2.80/S$1.113 per share, the gross proceeds of the IPO would be RM6,257mil/S$2,487mil.

The IHH IPO will be the third largest IPO in the world this year after Facebook Inc and Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd. Facebook raised US$16bil from its IPO earlier this year while Felda, which has since been listed on Bursa Malaysia since June 28, US$3.3bil.

There has been tremendous demand for the IHH shares from cornerstone, institutional and retail investors. A report said the take up rate was “most popular” by the 22 cornerstone investors of any recent IPO in the region in recent times. The cornerstone investors snapped up US$1.39bil, or 62%, of the 2.23 billion shares offered.

IHH managing director Lim Cheok Peng said: “We are delighted with the response that the IHH IPO has received. We believe it underscores the strength and quality of our offering, as well as the depth of investor interest in the opportunities we present.”

The company will have an initial market capitalisation of about RM23bil according to Bloomberg and IHH is expected to join the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index on Aug 1, a week after its July 25 listing. Felda will join the index in its next reshuffle.

The IHH IPO comprised of institutional placement, Malaysia public offering, Singapore public offering and cornerstone offering. IHH offered 2.23 billion shares under its dual listing on Bursa Malaysia and Singapore Exchange. Of the combined 2.23 billion shares, 1.39 billion were for cornerstone investors and 498.01 million for local and foreign institutional investors including those approved by the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti). Under the 498.01 million portion, 360 million shares were for Miti investors, while the balance 138.01 million units were for global institutions.

Some of the local cornerstone investors included billionaire T. Ananda Krishnan's Usaha Tegas group, Chua Ma Yu and the Employees Provident Fund, while the others included Blackrock Inc and AIA Group Ltd. It is said that cornerstone investors had agreed to hold the stock for a minimum time period in return for a guaranteed allocation.

IHH would use 90% of the proceeds to repay bank borrowings and a small portion would be used for its expansion drive to build 17 hospitals and increasing the number of beds to 8,200 by 2015. As at March 31, IHH operates 4,900 beds in 30 hospitals across Asia and Turkey.