Dec 31 Reuters Indian contract drugmaker Anthem Biosciences filed for a 33.95billionrupee 397 million initial public offering, draft papers showed on Tuesday, at the fag end of what has been a redhot year for companies listing on the stock market.

Anthem, whose services include earlystage drug discovery and drug efficacy testing, said private equity firm True North and drugmaker DavosPharma are among investors who will sell shares in the IPO.

The company will not sell any shares and it did not give any other details on the offering.

The Indian IPO market has been bustling this year, with over 300 companies having raised 17.5 billion as of midDecember, more than double the amount raised last year, LSEG data showed.

That gives it the top spot globally in terms of proceeds and volumes, according to consultancy firm KPMG.

Anthem, which began operations in 2007 and has two manufacturing facilities, is also going public at a time when global drugmakers are turning to India and other markets to limit their reliance on Chinese contractors.

Begalurubased Anthem also makes active pharmaceutical ingredients API, which are the main component of a drug, as well as dietary supplements and probiotics.

It competes with the likes of Syngene International, Divi39;s Laboratories and newlylisted Sai Life Sciences among Indian API makers.

1 85.5720 Indian rupees

Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D39;Souza

Source Reuters