Baring Private Equity Partners (India) is the front-runner to buy about 15% stake in Mumbai-based drugmaker Famy Care for around $40 million, or Rs 185 crore, a person familiar with the matter said. Privately-held Famy Care is one of the world’s largest maker of oral contraceptives pills.
“If the talks fructify, the deal could be closed within a month or two,” the person, a pharma industry executive asking not to be named, said. The deal will value Famy Care at Rs 1,230 crore, making it one of the biggest private equity investments in the pharma sector in recent times. When contacted by ET, Sanjeev Taparia, MD at Famy Care, said: “We are in discussions with potential PE funds. But we can’t share names as nothing has been finalised.” He also declined to share the financial details about the company. Mr Taparia leads the company owned by Taparia family.
E-mail and text messages sent to Rahul Bhasin, managing partner at Baring Private Equity Partners (India), remained unanswered.
But the PE firm has been looking to invest up to $150 million (about Rs 700 crore) in the pharma sector in the next few months. It is in talks with 3-4 drug contract manufacturing companies, with each deal ranging between $35 and $50 million. Baring Private Equity Partners is making the investments from a $550-million fund to be raised over the next 8-9 years. Set up in 1990, Famy Care has four manufacturing plants and is developing complex hormonal and reproductive healthcare medicines. Besides, contraceptive pills, it sells intra-uterine devices, rings for tubal ligation and cancer detection kits.
Two years ago, Famy Care had entered into a drug development and marketing agreement with US-based Mylan, the world’s third-largest generic drugmaker, to sell at least 22 oral contraceptive drugs in the US. The US market for oral contraceptives is valued over $3.3 billion. In 2008, a few PE funds and an Indian company were reportedly in talks to buy a 15% stake in Famy Care, but the deal did not materialise.
Source: Economic Times