Avesthagen IPO : Avesthagen IPO soon
Avesthagen IPO : Avesthagen IPO soon
Bangalore-biotech firm Avestha Gengraine Technologies (Avesthagen) is preparing for an IPO. The company plans to raise $100 million through a combination of capital markets and a pre-IPO placement to private equity funds, reports Business Standard, quoting Avesthagen founder and CEO Villoo Morawala Patell.
Avesthagen is the largest venture funded company in India with about $42-44 million being raised from entities like
New York Life Investment Management India Fund ($5 million), and from a group of investors like Fidelity International, the French companies Groupe Limagrain and Daninvest of Groupe Danone ($32.5 million), besides $5-7 million from Indian corporates like Godrej, Cipla, the Tata Group and ICICI Venture.
Avesthagen is focussed on the convergence of food, pharmaceuticals and clinical genomics. The company provides solutions to agriculture and health disorders such as degenerative diseases, metabolic disorders and infections.
Avesthagen’s clients include food and pharma companies such as bioMerieux, Cipla, Godrej Industries, Nestle, Groupe Limagrain, and Danone. It plans to commercially launch some of its products for the bio-pharma and bio- nutritional markets in 2008.
Avesthagen ipo news from hindu business line
Avesthagen is working up its Rs 700-crore public offer plan for the second half of this year but still needs to raise € 22 million (around Rs 138 crore) in the interim, according to its Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, Dr Villoo Morawala-Patell.
“[Last year] We needed € 40 million (around Rs 250 crore by today’s currency rates) till the IPO and some of it we have collected as debt and equity,” Dr Patell said at a news conference called to announce a Nestle executive and two others joining the Avesthagen board.
In the coming months, the company planned to take in a private equity player, seeking project-based funds and also “do some more [research] licensing deals” to shore up its resources, Dr Patell said. She would not divest in her 32 per cent stake during the public offer and did not favour pre-IPO equity placements, she said.
The company that is in the research and business of biotech food crops, therapeutic or functional foods and plant-based medicine expects to close the fiscal 2009-10 with revenue of Rs 40 crore, said Mr Koen Wentink, Chief-Corporate Affairs.
Nestle on board
Nestle comes on board with Dr John Darbyshire, Operations Manager of the Beverages SBU at Switzerland. The foods major has earlier sourced molecules from Avesthagen and was interested in the functional foods, Dr Patell said, adding, “This puts to rest all speculation about Avesthagen and Nestle not having a relationship.”