Sanofi India Ltd on Wednesday said its board has approved the sale and transfer of its nutraceuticals business to Universal Nutriscience Pvt. Ltd for ₹587 crore.
The move will help Sanofi India focus strongly on its growth pillars while allowing the nutraceuticals business to have more opportunities for expansion in an organisation where it will have a better strategic fit.
Universal Nutriscience is a strategic partnership between Kedaara Capital, a homegrown pirate equity firm, and Universal Medicare (a nutraceuticals company).
“Across the world, Sanofi regularly assesses the best ways in which to serve our customers. Following a strategic review of its portfolio, the company believes that the future potential of the Nutraceuticals range would be maximized in an organisation, which can provide deep category understanding and continuous innovation required to win in this specialized area. We have carefully selected Universal Nutriscience whose mission is to grow the business to provide more patients with increased access to the range of Nutraceuticals across India,” said Rajaram Narayanan, managing director, Sanofi India.
Sanofi said that 16 nutraceutical brands in the portfolio would be transferred to Universal Nutriscience as part of the transaction. These would include brands such as Seacod, E-Cod, CoQ, Primosa and Collaflex. All employees who are associated with this business will also have a smooth transition to Universal Nutriscience, it added.
“At Universal Nutriscience, our vision is to become India’s leading Nutraceuticals company. We are committed to building a focused Nutraceuticals business backed by three decades of experience in R&D and manufacturing to provide end-to-end scientifically-backed products and services. We will leverage the strong foundation of the business we are inheriting, including the established brand equity and experienced and knowledgeable team, to build a Nutraceuticals business that will be admired by consumers, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders in the eco-system,” said Nishant Sharma, CIO & Managing Partner, Kedaara Capital on behalf of Universal Nutriscience.
Deloitte Corporate Finance acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Sanofi India on this transaction.
Source: Mint