Homegrown private equity firm ChrysCapital has acquired a 27% stake for an undisclosed amount in pharmaceuticals company Corona Remedies Pvt Ltd in a secondary transaction. The deal creates an exit for private equity firm Creador which has sold its entire stake at a 4X gain on its original investment.
Kuala Lumpur based Creador, which invests in the South Asia and Southeast Asia markets, had picked up a minority stake in Ahmedabad based Corona Remedies for Rs 118 crore in July 2016.
The private equity firm had made the investment from its third fund. With this exit, Creador said its third fund has realised 15% of its committed capital.
In a separate statement, ChrysCapital director Kshitij Sheth said, “The domestic pharmaceutical market is a large, attractive and resilient market with a healthy outlook. ChrysCapital believes Corona is an excellent platform with a combination of a great management team, strong brands and superior marketing capabilities, all the ingredients to scale multi-fold and create significant value.”
ChrysCapital has been one of the more prolific investors in the country’s pharmaceuticals sector with bets on companies such as Intas Pharma, Mankind Pharma, Cadila, Eris Lifesciences, Ipca Labs and Torrent Pharma. It has also exited some of these companies.
Corona Remedies, launched in 2004 by Kirtibhai Mehta and his sons Nirav Mehta and Ankur Mehta, makes tablets, capsules, syrups, ointments, gum paints and injectables. The company, Creador said in its statement, saw revenues grow 2.6 times and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) grow over eight times during the private equity firm’s investment period.
Corona Remedies has expanded its presence across India and has also entered into new therapy areas through a combination of organic and inorganic routes.
In 2017, VCCircle reported that the company bought a portfolio of drugs from a multinational pharmaceuticals company to scale up its business. Recently, it also acquired a minority stake in hormone active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) maker La Chandra Pharmalab.
Delhi and Mumbai based ChrysCapital, which has raised $4 billion across eight funds since inception, is currently investing out of its $900-plus million eighth fund. The firm has made over 90 investments across sectors and claims to have realised over $5.6 billion from more than 70 full exits.