SH Kelkar & Co, a Mumbai-based maker of fragrances and flavours, said on Wednesday its board has approved a proposal to acquire one of its distributors for Rs 25 crore (about $3.7 million) in cash.
The company will also pay Rs 5 crore as goodwill/non-compete fee as part of the deal to acquire Rasiklal Hemani Agencies Pvt Ltd, it said in a stock-exchange filing.
The fragrance maker said the acquisition will help it expand its marketing activities in northern India by directly reaching out to customers through the distributor’s infrastructure. The acquisition is likely to be completed in the April-June quarter.
New Delhi-based Rasiklal Hemani Agencies generates revenue of about Rs 125 crore a year from north India by distributing a range of perfumes and flavours, the statement said.
SH Kelkar, which is backed by private equity firm Blackstone and went public in November last year, is promoted by the Vaze family with Ramesh Vaze as chairman.
It is among the top five players in India in the fragrance and flavour business and the top domestic manufacturer. Its main rivals such as Givaudan, IFF, Firmenich and Symrise are all multinational firms.
The company’s flavours are used as a raw material by producers of baked goods, dairy products, beverages and pharmaceuticals. It has about 300 customers for flavours, including Britannia India, VICCO Laboratories and Vadilal Industries Ltd.
