New Delhi, July 16 -- Global investment firm Vitruvian Partners is in advanced stage of talks to invest in domestic formulations manufacturer, at least two people aware of the development told VCCircle.
London-headquartered Vitruvian Partners, which usually focusses on dynamic situations characterised by rapid growth and change across asset-light industries, is in discussions to pick up significant stake in Linux Laboratories Pvt Ltd, which is primarily focused on central nervous system based domestic formulations.
Earlier, VCCircle reported that a clutch of private equity investors, including ChrysCapital, Malaysia's Creador and Bahrain-headquartered Investcorp were also in the fray to acquire stake in the Chennai-based firm.
Linux is planning to raise nearly $70 million (around Rs 674 crore) in this round of funding, one of the aforementioned individuals said. He added that the transaction is likely to include both primary and secondary components.
The company, which is backed by Tata Capital Healthcare fund, had earlier appointed investment bank Avendus Capital to scout for potential suitors.
Email queries sent to Linux Laboratories and Vitruvian Partners remained unanswered till the time of publishing this news article.
Target and the investor
Linux Laboratories was founded in 2007 by Hariharan P, Keerthivasan K and Ananda Kumar S. The company manufactures and markets products across anti-epileptics, anti psychotics, anti-depressants, nerve pain management, nutraceuticals, brain tonics and hypnotics categories
The company is said to have a product portfolio of more than 64 brands comprising a total of 180 SKUs.
The firm had secured Rs 80 crore from the Tata Capital Healthcare Fund II in 2021.
The firm had posted consolidated net sales of Rs 280 crore during FY25 as against Rs 248 crore a year ago. The company's PAT grew to Rs 25.9 crore from Rs 17.7 crore during the period under review.
The potential investor, Vitruvian Partners, is a global growth-focussed player with offices across London, Miami, San Francisco, Stockholm, Munich, Madrid, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Singapore and Shanghai.
Vitruvian has over $20 billion of active funds which have backed many global winners and leaders in their sectors, including CRF Health, Medison Pharma, Just Eat, EasyPark, Skyscanner, Wise, Global-e, CFC and Darktrace. The firm typically invests between €40m-€600m ($45 million- $687 million) in companies usually valued between €75m-€4bn ($86 million- $4.5 billion).
Some of its Indian portfolios include Hiranandani Financial Services, K12 Techno, Porter, Pine Labs and Turtle Mint.
Busy sector
Pharmaceuticals sector in India has seen several consolidation moves by domestic players and an increasing interest from private equity firms.
For instance, Sun Pharmaceuticals recently struck one of the largest biopharma deals in recent times with its buyout of women's health centric brand Organon. The deal size has been estimated to be around $11.75 billion.
Everstone Capital, a Singapore-headquartered private equity firm that invests in India and Southeast Asia, had committed to invest $270 million in Gujarat-based Apothecon Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd and its US-based sister concern Navinta.
In February, homegrown private equity firm ChrysCapital had agreed to acquire Swiss pharmaceutical major Novartis AG's entire stake in its Mumbai-listed unit for $159 million.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.