Process and project engineering firm Praj Industries Ltd has raised its holding in its water treatment subsidiary Praj HiPurity Systems Ltd (earlier Neela Systems Ltd) by acquiring an additional 10 per cent stake for Rs 20.40 crore ($3.3 million), as per a stock market disclosure.
Post acquisition, the firm holds 80 per cent stake in Praj HiPurity having invested approximately Rs 117.95 crore to buy the stake, spread over tranches.
Praj Industries has been hiking its stake in Praj HiPurity since Sept 2012. It had originally picked 50.2 per cent stake in Praj HiPurity for Rs 64 crore in January 2012. This deal valued the unit at just under Rs 128 crore.
After this in Sept in the same year, the firm acquired an additional 9.8 per cent stake for Rs 12.49 crore ($2.3 million), taking its holding to 60 per cent.
Last Sept, Praj Industries acquired an additional 10 per cent stake for Rs 20.4 crore and since then a total of 70 per cent stake.
The unit is now valued at Rs 204 crore.
Founded in 1989 by Himanshu Shah, Mumbai-headquartered Praj HiPurity designs and manufacturers water treatment systems, and caters to pharmaceutical, bio-pharmaceutical, food & beverage, cosmetics and healthcare industries. It has a manufacturing facility at Wada, Mumbai.
Pune-headquartered Praj provides ecofine distillation, ecomol dehydration and waste water treatment solutions to alcohol ethanol plants and offers technology, plants and services for biodiesel production. It also provides engineering, design, technology and project services, as well as agro energy consultancy services.
It is backed by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and Norwegian sovereign wealth fund among others.
Praj’s scrip closed at Rs 66.15 a share, up 4.17 per cent on the BSE in a flat Mumbai market on Tuesday.