PE major Advent to acquire Suven Pharma

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Global private equity major Advent International has agreed to acquire 50.10% stake in Suven Pharmaceuticals from the promoter Jasti family.

Under a share purchase agreement that has been signed, whose execution will be subject to regulatory approvals and conditions, it will acquire the stake in the contract development and manufacturing firm at 495 per equity share, Advent said on the more than ₹6,313 crore transaction.

As required by norms governing such acquisitions, Advent has also announced plans to make an open offer to acquire an addition 26% or more than ₹6.61 crore equity shares of the company from public shareholders.

Post acquisition, Advent intends to explore merger of Suven Pharma with Cohance Lifesciences, a portfolio company of Advent, to build a leading end-to-end CDMO and merchant API player servicing the pharma and specialty chemical markets. The merger will be evaluated by the board taking into consideration the strategic rationale and accretiveness to Suven’s public shareholders and will be subject to regulatory approvals and other customary approvals.

The holding of Jasti Property and Equity Holdings, sole trustee of Jasti Family Trust, in Suven Pharma will come down from existing 60% to 9.90%. post the transaction. 

“Advent is the ideal partner… their experience and resources will launch the next phase of growth,” Suven Pharmaceuticals Managing Director Venkateswarlu Jasti said, describing Advent as a strategic investor and the proposed collaboration with Cohance as a win-win for Suven and its public shareholders.

The plan is to build on Suven’s capabilities and make it one of the global leaders in the CDMO space and as part of which a merger with Cohance will be explored in a manner synergistic and accretive for Suven’s shareholders, Managing Partner and Head of Advent International in India Shweta Jalan said.

A leading India pharma CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organisation), Suven Pharma was demerged from its parent entity Suven Life Sciences in 2020. It has a strong pipeline of Phase 3 and late Phase 2 molecules with more than 100 active projects, Advent said.

“Our vision for Suven is to build a $1 billion global leader by executing effectively on the product pipeline, building new marquee customers, turbo-charging business development and scaling up manufacturing as well as research and development, Advent International MD Pankaj Patwari said.

Cohance is wholly owned by Advent and formed in November 2022 to create a new brand identity for its CDMO and API platform, with an intention of bringing together three Advent portfolio companies – RA Chem Pharma, ZCL Chemicals and Avra Laboratories.

Advent was advised on this transaction by Kotak Investment Banking and Avendus Capital while Suven had Barclays Bank Plc as their exclusive financial advisor.