New Delhi, Aug. 20 -- Mid-market private equity firms InvAscent and Motilal Oswal Alternates are partially exiting a pharmaceutical company in which they acquired a majority stake from a foreign peer more than seven years ago.
The two PE firms sold part of their stake in Indore, Madhya Pradesh-based Symbiotec Pharmalab Ltd on Wednesday and will offload some more stake next week via the company's initial public offering.
Symbiotec has set the price band at Rs 938-988 per share. This implies a pre-money valuation of Rs 6,198.2 crore and a post-IPO valuation of Rs 6,348.2 crore ($663 million) at the upper end of the range.
The total IPO size is Rs 1,757 crore, according to the bulk-drugs maker's red herring prospectus. This includes Rs 150 crore in a fresh issue that the company will use to repay debt and for general corporate purposes. In addition, the two PE firms and the company's promoters are divesting shares for Rs 1,607 crore through an offer-for-sale. InvAscent will mop up Rs 988 crore while MO Alts will pocket Rs 475 crore.
Separately, ahead of the IPO, InvAscent sold shares worth Rs 275 crore and MO Alts offloaded shares worth Rs 372.9 crore to a bunch of investors including funds managed by ValueQuest, Waterfield, Whiteoak Capital and Singularity AMC, according to a disclosure.
The two PE firms also sold a small portion of their shares earlier this month to the promoter group company Satwani Holdings LLP at a discounted price. MO Alts sold shares worth Rs 3.95 crore while InvAscent sold shares for Rs 30.17 crore, according to the red herring prospectus.
The two sets of pre-IPO transactions have reduced InvAscent's stake to 30.34% from 37.18% and brought down the stake held by MO Alts to 18.14% from 24.47%.
The two PE firms had bought a majority stake in Symbiotec from British PE firm Actis and some individuals in December 2018. InvAscent invested Rs 343.5 crore at the time while MO Alts put in Rs 226 crore.
Overall, InvAscent's harvest after the IPO will total Rs 1,293 crore; its remaining stake would be worth around Rs 893 crore at the upper end of the IPO price band. MO Alts' harvest after the IPO will total almost Rs 852 crore and its remaining stake would be valued at Rs 650 crore.
The partial exit in the IPO and the pre-IPO sale will help the two PE firms to generate an internal rate of return (IRR) of 28% and a multiple on invested capital (MOIC) of 6.7x in rupee terms, VCCircle estimates show. This exceeds the 20% benchmark that PE firms typically seek in an exit in local currency. These estimates exclude the stake sale to the promoter group firm at a discounted price.
In dollar terms, the two PE firms are realizing an IRR of 23% and an MOIC of around 5x. This beats the 15% IRR that PE firms chase in greenback. Symbiotec's business
Symbiotec develops, produces, and markets research-based corticosteroids and steroid-hormone active pharmaceutical ingredients. Its product portfolio spans over 60 corticosteroid and steroidal-hormone APIs supplied globally, including hydrocortisones, betamethasones, methylprednisolones, progesterones, estrogens and testosterones. These active ingredients are used in critical care setups across chronic therapeutic areas such as respiratory, dermatology, pain management, oncology and gynaecology.
As of March 31, 2026, the company operated via three verticals, supplying products to more than 200 customers in over 40 countries, including major generic and specialty pharmaceutical companies in the US, Europe, and Asia. These verticals are API products, contract development and manufacturing services, and complex injectables.
The company's topline has grown at a compound annual rate exceeding 10% over the last three financial years. In FY26, it recorded over 15% revenue growth to Rs 869 crore, with a net profit of Rs 109.9 crore. However, its EBITDA margin moderated to 26.59% in FY26 from 27.26% the previous year.
Symbiotec MD and founder Anil Satwani acknowledged the drop in profit margins, attributing it to capital expenditure in two new subsidiaries over the last few years. He asserted that the decline is only marginal.
Speaking at a pre-IPO press conference, Satwani added that the company is changing its geographical mix in favour of regulated markets, even as the margin profile of its core India business improves. He said the company continues to win new customers and is focusing on higher-margin products.
For the CDMO business, the company has large-scale fermentation capacity and is seeking multi-million-dollar contract manufacturing opportunities. It has also signed a couple of contracts for the large-scale fermentation opportunity and will begin generating revenue from this project by next financial year.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.