International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private equity arm of the World Bank, has agreed to invest Rs 64.46 crore in contract pharmaceutical manufacturing company Hikal Ltd. The company’s board has approved issuing 1.36 million shares to the World Bank arm on a preferential basis. This translates into an 8.2 per cent stake in the company.
“The capital inflows will be used for capacity expansion across Hikal’s manufacturing and research facilities,” said Jai Hiremath, Hikal’s Vice-Chairman & Managing Director. The expansions will be carried out at Hikal’s existing sites at Jigani (near Bangalore), Panoli (Gujarat) and Taloja (near Mumbai).
Earlier this week, Hikal announced the inauguration of a new multipurpose agrochemical plant at Taloja for the supply of Active Ingredients for Crop Protection Products to Bayer CropScience AG. The company which manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for the pharmaceutical industry as well as technicals for the agrochemical industry has embarked on a capital expenditure plan to enhance capacities for existing products and to set up capacities for new planned products.
