The market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has approved the Initial Public Offering of API Holdings, which operates PharmEasy and Adar Poonawalla-backed Wellness Forever Medicare.

API Holdings had filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI in November last year.  PharmEasy's IPO will only be a primary share sale of shares of Rs 6,250 crore. The company will use Rs 1,929 crore from the IPO proceeds to repay or prepay borrowings and Rs 1,259 crore to fund organic growth initiatives. It will also allocate Rs 1,500 crore on inorganic growth opportunities through acquisitions and other strategic initiatives.

The company may also consider a private placement aggregating up to Rs 1,250 crore. If such placement is completed, the fresh issue size will be reduced, it noted.

Meanwhile, Wellness Forever Medicare, an omni-channel retail pharmacy, plans to mop-up Rs 1,500-1,600 crore through its IPO, as per market reports.

The IPO consists of a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating to Rs 400 crore and an offer for sale up to 16,044,709 equity shares, as per the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP).

Wellness Forever was founded by Ashraf Biran, Gulshan Bakhtiani and Mohan Chavan in 2008. Biran and Bakhtiani are selling up to 720,000 shares each, while Chavan is selling around 1.2 million shares.

The proceeds from the issue will be used for capital expenditure, setting up new stores, repayment of debt and funding working capital.