Homegrown private equity firm ChrysCapital has agreed to acquire Swiss pharmaceutical major Novartis AG’s entire stake in its Mumbai-listed unit for Rs 1,445.8 crore ($159 million).
The PE firm, which raised a record $2.2 billion last year for its tenth fund, has agreed to buy a 70.68% stake in Novartis India Ltd, as per a stock exchange disclosure.
It has also made an open offer to acquire another 26% stake in Novartis India from its public shareholders for around Rs 552 crore. If the open offer succeeds, ChrysCapital will own more than a 96% stake in Novartis India.
Shares of Novartis India jumped nearly 20% to Rs 996.50 during morning trading on Friday.
The transaction follows Novartis AG’s early 2024 announcement that it was exploring a strategic review of its India unit. Novartis said at the time that the review won’t impact another India unit, Novartis Healthcare Pvt Ltd. Later that year, media reports indicated that interested parties included ChrysCapital, Apollo Global Management, Kedaara Capital and Multiples PE.
Novartis's presence in India dates back to 1947. It operates in the country via two entities: Novartis Healthcare Pvt Ltd and the Mumbai-listed Novartis India Ltd. For the Swiss pharma giant, India is one of the few countries where the company has a broad presence, including four divisions, namely: commercial pharma operations, drug development, biomedical research, and operations.
ChrysCapital is carrying out the buyout through its latest fund. ChrysCap, one of last year's most active PE investors, set a record last year for raising the largest sector-agnostic private equity fund ever raised by a firm in the country.
The latest fund's corpus size is 60% higher than the $1.35-billion it raised three years ago for its ninth fund.
Novartis India will join a long list of pharmaceutical companies that ChrysCapital has backed.
At present, ChrysCapital's healthcare portfolio includes at least four pharmaceutical and domestic formulation companies. These are La Renon Healthcare, Intas Pharmaceuticals, Eris Lifesciences, and Corona Remedies. It had invested $70 million in Gujarat-based La Renon Healthcare in 2024.
The PE firm is reported to be evaluating deals in the pharma space. VCCircle reported last year that ChrysCapital emerged as a frontrunner to invest in a local contract development and manufacturing organisation in Aizant Drug Research Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Some of its notable exits in the pharma space so far include GVK Bio, Zydus Cadilla, Torrent Pharma, Ipca Laboratories, Curatio Healthcare, and Mankind Pharma.
