Ahmedabad-based hospital chain Shalby today said it is looking at expansion in eastern and North-eastern region.

"We are looking for an opportunity for our presence in eastern region locations like Bhubaneshwar and Kolkata. However, nothing has been finalised yet," Shalby CEO Ravi Bhandari said on the sidelines of a roadshow for its maiden IPO. "In metros, we will expand with a super-speciality hospital but in an asset-light model," he said. Shalby has been expanding rapidly through tie-ups in which the hospital brand does not want to own realty to keep costs low. The company was also open to managing existing hospitals. A tie-up up with a Guwahati hospital for offering orthopaedic co-branded services like a shop-in-shop concept," Bhandari said.

Currently, the hospital has nine operational hospitals and claimed to have 15 per cent market share of all joint replacement surgeries conducted by private corporate hospitals in India in 2016. Shalby has fixed the price band between Rs 245 to Rs 248 per equity share for its proposed initial public offer which opened today. It will raise Rs 480 crore in fresh capital and worth around Rs 25 crore via offer for sale from promoters. The company has already allotted 60 lakh shares to its anchor investors including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Axis Mutual Fund for Rs 150 crore.