Pilulka, a Czech based pharmacy and technology company, has announced its initial public offering on the Prague Stock Exchange’s START market by mid-October. The START market is an MTF market for Czech & innovative SME’s worth over CZK 25 million.
Pilulka plans to offer 20 percent of the company in the IPO, which will be traded on the START market. The company wants to move to the primary market of the stock exchange in the following years. E15 reports that it will be the largest first public offer on the START market to date, and the company’s valuation could exceed CZK 1 billion.
“From the public offer, we promise to secure financing for further expansion abroad and technological development. Not only have recent months shown that digitization is progressing very fast, even faster than we could all imagine a few months ago,” Kasa said today.
In the current ownership structure of Pilulka, the company’s founders, the Kasová brothers, together with business partners and employees, hold a 69 percent stake. The remaining shares are held by Wood & Company, which owns the securities through the Maltese All-Star Holding. “All current co-owners will have their share reduced proportionally after entering the stock exchange by a fifth, which will fall into the hands of small stock exchange investors. On the contrary, the company could gain about 200 million crowns if it successfully subscribed,” the website wrote.
Kasa said today that the company had several offers from financial and strategic investors from the Czech Republic and abroad, but opted for a public offer. “We are convinced that the Pill will be the dominant player in the field of pharmacy and health services in Central Europe in a few years, and it is the transparency of the stock exchange that can help,” he said.
The company said it expects stock prices to rise not only as the market position grows, with annual projected revenue growth of about 30 percent in the coming years, but also as the company becomes more profitable each year. “We are pleased that Pilulka has decided to acquire new resources in the capital market. The Prague Stock Exchange is thus gaining another interesting issue, also from a sector whose importance will grow not only in the current coronavirus period but also in the future,” said Wood & Company Chairman Jan Titmouse.
The Pilulka pharmacy group operates on the Czech, Slovak, and Romanian markets. At the end of August, the company announced that it had earned 1.6 billion crowns in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 45 percent. Internet sales increased by 68 percent year-on-year, while stone pharmacies earned a third more than in the same period last year. Pilulka currently operates 155 stone pharmacies in the Czech Republic, one stone pharmacy in Slovakia, and online pharmacies Pilulka.cz, Pilulka.sk and pilulka.ro.
The START stock market is intended for developing small and medium-sized Czech companies to get capital. It offers these companies the opportunity to raise capital directly from investors under simplified conditions. Regulated markets are practically inaccessible to smaller companies due to the administration, which increases the cost of entering the stock exchange.