India's Wockhardt Hospitals pulls IPO on poor show

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MUMBAI, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Indian healthcare services provider Wockhardt Hospitals Ltd said it had decided to withdraw its initial public offer due to poor investor response, becoming the first Indian IPO to fall prey to turbulent market conditions.

Wockhardt had cut its indicated price band, lowering the maximum it could raise to $165 million from an initially planned up to $197 million, and extended the sale period, but it received subscriptions for only a fifth of the offering.

"The decision not to proceed with the IPO was made in light of continued global and domestic market volatility and poor market sentiments and the resultant effect on the subscription levels," Wockhardt said in a statement late on Thursday.

Mumbai-based Wockhardt had cut the price band for the 25.1 million share issue to 225-260 rupees a share from the earlier 280-310 rupees and extended the closing date to Feb. 7.

The sale received total subscriptions for about 20 percent, with institutional bids at 0.06 percent, non-institutional bids at 0.05 percent and retail investors at 0.52 percent, according to the National Stock Exchange Web site.

Refunds will be completed within 15 days, the company said.

Citibank (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Kotak Investment Banking were the bankers to the issue.

On Wednesday, the Indian joint venture of Dubai's Emaar Porperties EMAR.DU extended the close of its IPO until Feb. 11 and lowered the indicated price band for a second time.

The IPO, which aims to raise up to $1.64 billion, had received subscriptions for 83 percent of the offering by Thursday, exchange data showed. ($1 = 39.5 rupees) (Reporting by Bharghavi Nagaraju; Editing by Harish Nambiar and Ranjit Gangadharan)