Portea Medical plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore via IPO: What you need to know

Have you ever wanted to move abroad but hesitated because you could not fathom how to manage your parents' health in old age? Or do you worry about their physiotherapy sessions when you are tied up at work? Well, Portea is one of India's largest companies that supply nurses, medical attendants, and physiotherapists at homes and hospitals.   

Portea Medical has walked in the footsteps of fellow health tech company Pharmeasy and has filed a Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and is planning to raise around Rs 1,000 crore through an Initial Public Offering (IPO). It plans to use this money to meet its working capital needs, repay loans and expand its business further. Here's more about the company and its IPO dreams:

If you are like me and have never heard of Portea or Healthvista India before, well, we are in the same boat.

WHAT IS HEALTHVISTA/ PORTEA?

Healthvista India is a Bengaluru-based company founded by Krishnan Ganesh and his wife Meena Ganesh. The company provides physiotherapy and nursing services to customers. Portea also provides other services like 'mother and child' care, nutrition and diet consultation lab tests, counselling, elder care and critical care.

They provide home nursing facilities independently to patients and even resource their nurses and caretakers to multi-specialty hospitals. The company has about 4 subsidiary companies:

• Portea Medical Private Limited,
• Inmedica Health Private Limited (IMPHL),
• Takecare Technology Private Limited
• Medybiz Pharma Private Limited

The company makes money through multiple revenue streams like: 

1. Providing physio and nursing services to individual patients 
2. Helping patients at multi-specialty hospitals with physio and nursing services
3. Providing patient support services to pharma companies
4. Refilling prescription medicines in corporate offices
5. Renting medical equipment to patients
6. Providing specialty medicines to patients suffering from chronic diseases.

During the pandemic, Portea collaborated with the governments of Delhi, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, and Chennai to provide home isolation services to Covid-19 patients. Portea brought together over 1,000 healthcare workers and 500 doctors, directly and via partnerships, and used a tracking system to remotely monitor patients' health. This reduced the need for patients to visit hospitals.

THE IPO DETAILS 

As per The Economic Times, Healthvista India has filed a DRHP with the SEBI to raise public funds through an IPO. Healthvista aims to raise funds of Rs 1000 crore, out of which Rs 200 crore shall be raised by the fresh issue of shares and the balance will be an offer for sale from the existing shareholders, which will comprise up to 5,62,52,644 shares.

WHAT DOES HEALTHCARE VISTA NEED THIS MONEY FOR?

Healthcare Vista plans to use the IPO proceeds for multiple purposes like:

• Fulfilling the working capital requirements of its material subsidiary Medybiz Pharma
• Repayment of loans,
• Purchasing of medical equipment
• Marketing, brand building, inorganic growth initiatives
• General corporate purposes.