Private equity firm Convergent Finance has appointed former SeQuent Scientific chief, Manish Gupta as operating partner, the firm said on Wednesday.
Currently the managing director at Jagsonpal Pharmaceuticals, Gupta was previously MD & CEO at veterinary API manufacturer SeQuent Scientific. He has also been CEO of Strides Pharma Science’s pharma division and a part of senior management at Wockhardt.
In Convergent, Gupta will help identify diligent investment opportunities with his expertise in conducting corporate turnarounds and organizational transformations, the press release noted.
“Building on our successful relationship at SeQuent, I look forward to collaborating with the Convergent team to identify investment opportunities in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and working with those companies to expand their businesses,” Gupta said.
Funds advised by Convergent Finance acquired a 43.7% stake in bulk drugs and formulations maker Jagsonpal Pharmaceuticals Ltd for Rs 269 crore ($36 million) in February. This is the first bet where Convergent Funds, the funds managed by Infinity Investment Management and advised by Convergent Finance, will get a controlling stake in any firm.
Harsha Raghavan, managing partner at Convergent said “Manish is a veteran of the pharmaceutical industry with over 25 years of stellar experience building and turning around several businesses. We have known him personally for almost 10 years, including during our period as shareholders of Sequent Scientific, and have seen him grow the business. We see opportunities to consolidate and create a platform play in the domestic formulations industry.”
Convergent Finance was floated by Harsha Raghavan – a Stanford alumnus – after he quit as the India head of Fairfax’s private equity wing, Fairbridge Capital Pvt. Ltd, in May 2018.
In December that year, VCCircle had reported that Raghavan’s new investment firm was looking to raise as much as $500 million (Rs 3,515 crore then) under its maiden fund – a near-record sum for someone breaking out on their own.
Its investments include specialty chemicals maker Camlin Fine Sciences Ltd, Jyoti International Foods Pvt. Ltd, a supply chain solutions provider for the food services industry, and Hindustan Foods Ltd, a contract manufacturer for PepsiCo’s Kurkure brand of snacks.
In December last year, Convergent Finance completely exited its investment in publicly-listed life sciences company SeQuent Scientific.