Big Caring Group Bhd, Malaysia's largest pharmacy chain, is reportedly planning to raise up to RM3 billion through an initial public offering (IPO), potentially becoming one of the country's largest listings in a decade.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the company is targeting an IPO as early as October this year.
Big Caring is backed by private equity firm Creador Sdn Bhd, which began investing in the company in 2015 and now holds about a 34% stake.
So far this year, Malaysia's IPO market has raised around RM5.6 billion with the largest listing led by Sunway Healthcare Holdings Bhd which raised RM3.3 billion in March.
Big Caring is reportedly set to offer up to a 25.5% stake after the company's capital expansion and part of the funds raised are expected to be used to pay down debt.
However, discussions on the IPO are still ongoing and details including the actual size and listing date are still subject to change.
Big Caring is the owner of several well-known pharmacy brands including Big Pharmacy and Caring Pharmacy with a total of 626 branches across Malaysia according to the company's IPO prospectus.
The company also plans to open around 40 to 50 new branches every year over the next three to five years to strengthen its dominance of the local pharmacy market.
Big Caring was founded by Lee Meng Chuan and Lim Sin Yin who still have a large stake in the company to this day.
If successfully implemented according to plan, the Big Caring IPO is expected to be one of the listings that garnered the most attention from local investors this year, especially in the healthcare and consumer sectors.
