ICICI Venture to sell Vetnex stake to Pfizer for Rs 200 cr

ICICI Venture today announced signing of a definitive share purchase agreement to sell all common shares of RFCL’s Vetnex Animal Health to Pfizer Animal Health of world’s largest drug maker Pfizer. The acquisition is expected to close by August 2009, subject to necessary regulatory approvals.

Vetnex Animal Health is a part of RFCL, a significant stake in which was acquired by ICICI Venture from Ranbaxy Laboratories for Rs 125 crore in 2005.

Though ICICI Venture did not disclose much, sources said the deal was worth over Rs 200 crore and that Vetnex had an annual turnover of Rs 100-120 crore. French animal healthcare majors Virbac and Sanofi-Aventis were also in the race, they said. When contacted, RFCL executives declined to comment.

Vetnex is a market leader in poultry, livestock and pet healthcare and is one of the top three players in the Indian animal healthcare market. The company is valued at about Rs 1,400 crore.

RFCL, which operates in chemicals, diagnostics and animal healthcare sectors, had de-merged its animal health division into Vetnex earlier this year.