Everstone buys minority stake in OmniActive Health for US$ 35 million

New Delhi: Home-grown private equity (PE) major Everstone Group has invested $35 million (approximately Rs232 crore) in Mumbai-based nutraceutical ingredient player OmniActive Health Technologies Ltd for a significant minority stake, the recipient company said on Monday.

The investment will help OmniActive in diversifying and expanding its offerings as well as in its inorganic growth strategy.

Mint was the first to report in November that the PE firm is in advanced discussions to invest Rs300 crore in OmniActive.

“With the support of its experienced teams and funding, OmniActive looks forward to building on our history of solid organic growth by further strengthening our presence globally using innovative products and technologies,” said Sanjaya Mariwala, managing director of OmniActive Health, in a press release on Monday.

“This will be done by also growing inorganically to bring a wider product portfolio of responsibly made ingredients to our customers through our strategic acquisitions,” Mariwala added.

As part of the deal, Deep Mishra, managing director at Everstone India, will join OmniActive’s board as a nominee director, along with Leendert Staal, a nutraceutical expert and former CEO of the global industry leader DSM Nutritional Products.

OmniActive is a leading SUPPLIER of naturally sourced ingredients for eye health, weight management and heart health to global nutraceutical companies that provide food supplements and nutritional fortification. The company has state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, well-equipped R&D centres across India and Canada, and sales and marketing presence across the US, Europe and Asia.

In the last 18 months, OmniActive claims that it has completed 12 human clinical trials in healthy populations across its portfolio of branded ingredients. The company has a strong presence in the US and is working to achieve similar success in Europe and Asia.

“This investment aims at helping OmniActive SCALE its already strong presence in the fast-growing nutraceutical space,” said Sameer Sain, co-founder and managing partner of Everstone Group.

In September, Mint also reported that OmniActive Health is in talks to buy a significant stake in Bengaluru-based fragrance and speciality chemicals maker Indfrag Ltd and is reaching out to PE firms and structured financing agencies for acquisition financing.

The deal is Everstone’s third in the healthcare and wellness sector in less than a year and fifth from its third PE fund—Everstone Capital Partners III —that it closed in September 2015.

In October last year, Everstone acquired a 70% equity stake in Mumbai-based drug delivery technology firm Rubicon Research Pvt. Ltd for Rs220 crore (about $33 million), that was preceded by Everstone taking a majority stake in Ascent Health, an Indian pharmaceutical delivery services provider, in March.

Avendus Capital advised OmniActive on this deal as the investment banker.

Everstone Capital, co-founded by Sameer Sain and Atul Kapur, former Goldman Sachs executives, has been an active PE investor in India. With assets under management of $3.3 billion, Everstone has around 200 people working across five offices, including in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Mauritius and London.

Portfolio companies of Everstone include fashion house Ritu Kumar, VLCC Healthcare Ltd, Internet services provider Tikona Digital Networks, beauty salon CHAIN YLG India, restaurant operator Pan India Food Solutions Pvt. Ltd (Blue Foods), food products maker Capital Foods Ltd, wind-turbine maker Regen Powertech Pvt. Ltd, non-banking financial company IndoStar Capital Finance Pvt. Ltd, healthcare services provider Global Hospitals Group and winemaker Sula Vineyards.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.