Medplus: Medplus decides against fund raising, puts diagnostic expansion on hold

Pharmacy retail chain Medplus on Wednesday said its board has decided against proceeding with the proposed Rs 1200 crore fund-raising plan and has also put the expansion of diagnostic business on hold.

The Hyderabad-based company also said the expansion of pharmacy business will be through internal accruals and working capital loan.

“To defer the expansion plans for diagnostics division beyond Hyderabad, until the profitability of the pilot project is established,” the company

Medplus board in November last year approved fund raise of up to Rs 1200 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP).
Medplus plans to open 600-700 new stores next year and is focusing on growing it’s private label, where it launched 600 products.
Medplus has 4,233 pharmacies spread across ten states in the country. The company has entered diagnostics business almost two years ago in Hyderabad with 3 full service centres, 4 level 2 centres, over 100 collection centres and one central path lab. The company saw its pharmacy business as complementary to diagnostics, as most of its customers buying medicines at its stores would also be require diagnostic testing.

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