Marico eyes stake sale to fund Paras acquisition

Indian consumer goods major, Marico is set to divest 5% of its stake to fund the Rs6000m ($117m) acquisition of Paras Pharmaceuticals’ personal care portfolio from Reckitt Benckiser.

According to investment banking sources, the company plans to raise Rs5000m ($98m) from the stake sale.

Marico consumer products division CEO Saugata Gupta said that the deal is on and negotiations are centred on the sale price.
The company is negotiating with a number of private equity (PE) companies including GIC, Temasek and Khazanah to raise up to $100m by selling the stake in the entity.

Marico, which extended its mother brand Parachute from hair care to skin care recently, is expected to issue fresh equity shares as part of the transaction.

In February, Marico acquired the personal care brands of Paras Pharma including Set Wet, Livon, Zatak and certain others.

Marico, which has three divisions in the Consumer Products Group, The International Business Group and Kaya Skin Clinic, holds number of brands including Parachute, Saffola, Hair&Care, Nihar, Mediker, Revive, Manjal, Kaya Skin Clinic, Aromatic, Fiancee, HairCode, Xmen, Hercules, Caivil, Code 78 and Black Chic.