Ex-GCPL MD makes first acquisition after exit

A Mahendran, former managing director of Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL), has made his first acquisition following exit from the company in June last year.

58-year-old Mahendran has bought back Hi Care, a pest management brand, from Danish company ISS, which he sold to the latter in 2009.

The deal, valued at Rs 150 crore, also involved private equity investor India Value Fund. The latter will have an 80 per cent stake in the Mumbai-based company Hi Care India, with the balance held by Mahendran.

The FMCG veteran, considered an authority on household insecticides, who created brands such as Good Knight and Hit in the 1980s under Transelektra Domestic Products, subsequently selling the company to the Godrej Group in 1994, was not immediately available for his comments. But the turnover of Hi Care, first launched in 2004 under the Godrej Group, is Rs 70 crore, implying the deal was two times sales.

Mahendran, who joined the Godrej Group in 1995 following sale of his company to the latter, is expected to leverage his experience and expertise in household insecticides to aggressively push Hi Care, which is present in 30 cities in India including all the top metros.

The pest management business in India, which is a services segment, is pegged at Rs 1,500 crore - one-third the size of household insecticides, which is about Rs 4,500 crore in size. Globally, pest management is a bigger business in comparison to household insecticides, a products vertical.

Hi Care specialises in cockroach and termite management in residential and commercial premises, and under ISS, a global player in facility management, got a new lease of life.