Medilines Distributors Inc., a leading distributor of medical equipment in the country, is set to list as the Philippines’ first pure-play healthcare initial public offering (IPO) on Tuesday, Dec. 7 following an overwhelming market response from institutional and retail investors.
“It was a pleasant surprise to see overwhelming interest from a diverse set of investors – spanning from high quality, long-only domestic institutional investors and thousands of Filipino retail investors from across the world,” Medilines Chairman Virgilio B. Villar said.
“We are grateful to all of our investors for supporting our mission to provide all Filipinos access to healthcare facilities with word-class medical equipment,” he said.
Demand for the IPO exceeded P4.7 billion on the back of strong demand across all tranches, resulting in an oversubscription of 2.5 times the offer size of P1.9 billion.
“The brisk market uptake of MEDIC shares reflects the strong clamor from the domestic capital market for an alternative investment outlet in the most appropriate sector in the midst of the global health crisis,” said Gerry B. Valenciano, President and CEO of underwriter PNB Capital and Investment Corporation.
He added that, “Investors in the US and other markets have long been presented with opportunities to invest in the healthcare sector. We are excited for this milestone listing as domestic investors can now directly participate in an industry growing significantly faster than the overall global economy.”
Part of the proceeds from the IPO will be directly used by Medilines for its foray into the high-growth, high-margin medical consumables business to support the growing healthcare industry.
“We believe we are uniquely positioned to deliver long-term shareholder value for many years to come as our business model is designed to do well in most market conditions,” Villar explained.
Medilines has demonstrated a track record of growth at a higher rate than industry attributing to the consistently growing demand for its products. From 2018 to 2020, revenues grew at a CAGR of 11.9 percent to just under P1.5 billion, while net income grew at a CAGR of 16 percent to P103 million.
In 2021, revenues for the six-month period ended June 30, 2021 jumped to P815 million while its net income was at P100 million.
Medilines is a leading distributor of medical equipment to public and private healthcare facilities across the Philippines.
It maintains a portfolio of best-in-class equipment from world-renowned brands such as Siemens Healthineers (Germany) for diagnostic imaging, B. Braun (Germany) for dialysis, and Varian (USA) for cancer therapy.
Medilines’ broad portfolio of medical equipment under the diagnostic imaging (CT scans, x-rays), dialysis (dialysis machines), and cancer therapy (linear accelerators) categories address the most prevalent diseases among Filipinos as well as the most pressing disease of the time – COVID-19.
The firm aims to become a “one-stop shop” for its customers by foraying into the distribution of medical consumables where customers can now buy not only the equipment but also their regular supply of consumables.