Private equity major Blackstone has started the process of exiting its maiden investment in India, Emcure Pharmaceuticals. The Pune-based Emcure has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the market regulator SEBI to raise Rs 300 crore. The issue also involves a secondary sale 2.5 million shares, a chunk of it by Blackstone.
Blackstone has invested Rs 226 crore in Emcure through convertible shares and currently holds a 13.09 per cent stake. The PE firm is selling around 1.7 million of its 5.9 million shares, which would mean over one-fourth of its holding. The DRHP indicates that the company is looking at a valuation of over Rs 4,000 crore.
Book running lead managers to the issue include Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Another pharmaceutical firm which filed for public offering recently was Intas Pharmaceuticals.
Emcure is ranked as the 14th-largest pharmaceutical company in India in terms of market share based on the domestic sales of pharmaceutical products. It is ranked as the 7th-largest pharmaceutical company in the therapeutic areas in which it operates. These areas include cardiology, pain and analgesics, HIV, gynecology, nephrology, anti-infective, and vitamins, minerals and nutrients.
In April 2011, Emcure acquired Heritage Pharmaceuticals, a New Jersey-based generic pharmaceutical company, which provided it a commercial platform to market and sell its products. In December 2012, it acquired the worldwide rights of BiCNU, a branded oncology product.
For the nine months ended December 31, 2012, Emcure's revenue from operations was Rs 1,503 crore with net profit at Rs 56.3 crore. Of these revenues, 54.7 per cent were attributable to sales within India and 45.3 per cent were attributable to sales outside the country.
In FY12, Emcure's revenues were up 33.45 per cent to Rs 1,807 crore with net profit up 16.3 per cent to Rs 95.7 crore.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
