New Delhi, Aug. 10 -- US-based Brighton Park Capital, a growth equity investment firm that focuses on software, technology-enabled services and healthcare sectors, has fully exited an Indian company it backed alongside larger private equity peer Carlyle a little more than five years ago.
Brighton Park has sold its entire remaining stake in Mumbai-listed lifesciences company Indegene Ltd through open market transactions. The PE firm offloaded an 8.7% stake in Indegene last week, stock-exchange data show, pocketing about Rs 1,105.3 crore ($116 million at current exchange rates). This comes amid a recovery in the company's share price after falling to a one-year low in early March when the stock market had fallen in the wake of the US-Iran war.
The liquidity move follows the PE firm's sale of a portion of its stake during Indegene's initial public offering in 2024, along with Carlyle, and a partial exit through open market transactions last year.
Brighton Park invested about Rs 540-545 crore in the healthcare technology services provider in 2021 as part of a larger round. At the time, Indegene secured $200 million (around Rs 1,500 crore then) from Carlyle and Brighton Park. Carlyle itself pitched in around Rs 920 crore.
Carlyle sold a small chunk of its holding to Avendus Future Leaders Fund in 2023. It then sold some stake during Indegene's IPO for Rs 488 crore and divested its entire remaining stake of 10.2% in June last year for about Rs 1,447 crore ($168.5 million), generating an internal rate of return of 30-32% in rupee terms.
As for Brighton Park, it owed a little more than 12% in Indegene before the company's IPO. It mopped up Rs 182.4 crore as part of the offer for sale in the IPO and then sold a small portion of its stake sometime between April and June last year. The exact timing of this partial exit couldn't be ascertained but the firm is likely to have pocketed about Rs 100-110 crore, according to VCCircle estimates based on the prevailing share prices.
The latest tranche of exit last week likely helped the PE firm to generate an IRR of around 19-20% and a multiple on invested capital (MOIC) of close to 2.6x in rupee terms, on a first-in, first-out basis, according to VCCircle estimates. Overall, the company likely realised an IRR of about 21% from its entire investment, the estimates show.
In dollar terms, which is more relevant for Brighton Park, the firm is likely to have scored an IRR of around 14% in the latest tranche and around 15-16% overall due to the rupee's depreciation, the estimates show.
This broadly matches the minimum 20% IRR that PE firms target in local currency terms and 15% in dollar terms.
Indegene, founded in 1998 by five first-generation entrepreneurs, provides technology platforms and commercialization services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies. It also counts Infosys co-founder NS Raghavan as an investor.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.