Warburg Pincus, the private equity firm that underwent a leadership change last month with Jeffrey Perlman appointed its new chief executive officer, has now ramped up its play in the furniture space in India with the acquisition of a majority stake in Ebco Pvt Ltd.
The promoters of Ebco will retain a significant minority stake and will be actively involved in future growth of the business, according to a release.
Ebco, founded in 1963, was initially a tool room that eventually diversified into furniture hardware. Based in Mumbai, the company offers products spanning bed and wardrobe fittings, kitchen systems and accessories, office furniture fittings, window and door hardware, and furniture lights. It has a distribution network of over 5,500 retail touchpoints. It sells furniture fittings and architectural hardware under brands such as Ebco, Livsmart, and Worksmart.
In the year ended March 2023, the company had Rs 792 crore in net sales, and an EBITDA of Rs 121.5 crore. It had a net profit of Rs 84 crore.
It operates three manufacturing facilities in Maharashtra, with a team of over 700 employees.
Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Ebco.
“The Indian furniture fittings and architectural hardware industry is poised for significant growth over the next several years thanks to rising real estate demand, furniture modularization, and home renovations,” said Anish Saraf, managing director of Warburg Pincus India.
Warburg Pincus has more than $83 billion in assets under management globally. The firm’s active portfolio has more than 225 companies across sectors and geographies.
The firm had struck its single-largest deal in India (since it began investing in the country more than two decades ago) when it agreed to acquire Shriram Housing Finance Ltd for Rs 4,630 crore (about $555 million).
Information pieced together by VCCircle also showed this deal was bigger than the $350 million (Rs 2,259 crore) invested in Bharti Airtel's DTH arm in December 2017, as well as the $360-million transaction sealed with Tata Technologies in June 2017, a deal that was eventually scrapped.
Since its founding in 1966, Warburg Pincus has invested more than $117 billion in over 1,000 companies across its private equity, real estate, and capital solutions strategies.
