Alternative asset management firm CLSA Capital Partners has invested $10 million to buy an undisclosed stake in baby diaper and adult incontinence product manufacturer Nobel Hygiene Pvt Ltd (NHL). While the baby diapers are sold under Teddyy brand, the adult incontinence products are sold as Friends.
The investment was done out of CLSA Capital’s investment platform ARIA Investment Partners IV LP and ARIA Investment Partners IV (Non-US) LP.
The deal also marks partial exit for PE firm Access India Fund which has sold under a third of its stake in the company.
Access had co-invested with other individual investors in a deal worth around $11.5 million two years ago. The PE firm, which mostly targets consumer goods & services and the life sciences segments, is learnt to have brought in under half of that round which also saw participation from people from Dempo and Salgaocar families besides other HNIs.
“ARIA IV’s investment in NHL is recognition of the progress made by the company to emerge as the market leader in the adult diapers category and a serious player with size, scale and own brand in the baby diapers category,” says Kamal Johari, promoter of NHL.
NHL manufactures products in its own facility.
“Changing lifestyles, evolving social habits and a favourable demographic structure, coupled with low diaper penetration, have resulted in diapers being one of the fastest growing categories in the FMCG segment in India. The ARIA team aim to assist NHL to scale its operation, enhance its brand and prepare it to capture the exponential growth potential in this space,” says Miranda Tang, managing director of ARIA Funds.
This is the fund’s second investment in India out of ARIA IV. The fourth fund was launched in 2012 and its other investment is in Luminous Water Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Mastermind Financial Services Pvt Ltd acted as the financial advisor to Nobel Hygiene on this deal while the firm was legally advised by Crawford Bayley & Co.
