Thyrocare Technologies falls 8% as PharmEasy to buy majority stake

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Shares of Thyrocare Technologies dropped over 8% on Monday after PharmEasy, an online pharmacy startup, announced that it is acquiring a controlling stake in the established diagnostics chain in a deal worth over Rs 6,300 crore, from its 62-year-old founder A Velumani.

Shares of the company traded 8.15% down at Rs 1,330 at around 11.57 am (IST). On the other hand, the benchmark BSE Sensex was down 0.23% at 52,804.

Pharmeasy’s parent company API Holdings has signed a definitive agreement to buy 66.1% of Thyrocare stocks from Velumani and his affiliates at Rs 1,300 per share. This values the transaction at Rs 4,546 crore.

Besides, API will acquire an additional 26% in the listed Thyrocare through an open offer and is offering Rs 1,788 crore for the same while Velumani has been given the option to invest up to 5% in API after the deal in a separate transaction.

Acknowledging that it is an “audacious move” wherein his 7-year-old company is acquiring the 25-year-old Thyrocare, API Holdings’ Chief Executive Siddharth Shah said the deal will synergise the offerings of Pharmeasy with Thyrocare’s services to ensure that 70% of India gets a blood report and medicines in their homes within 24 hours.

Commenting on the deal, ICICI Securities said, “We raise revenue and EBITDA estimates by 1-7% and 1-6% respectively for FY22E-FY23E to factor in higher volume growth possibility through PharmEasy. We also raise our target price to Rs 1,386 per share (earlier Rs 985) as we increase growth potential for future years for DCF calculation. We upgrade the stock to ‘Hold’ from ‘Reduce’.”