Laurus Labs gets Rs 550-cr investment from Warburg Pincus

Laurus Labs, a Visakhapatnam-based leading developer and API manufacturer, today said an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm, has acquired a minority stake in the company by investing approximately Rs 550 crore.
Warburg Pincus will join Fidelity Growth Partners India (FGPI) and Boston-based Fidelity Biosciences, who led an earlier round of investment in 2012, as an investor in the company. The company has not disclosed terms of the transaction, a Laurus statement said.
Laurus is a leading manufacturer of APIs for anti-retroviral (ARV), oncology, cardio-vascular, anti-diabetic therapeutic segments.
The company also has a presence in nutraceuticals and several other products, with a customer base that spans top-tier generic pharmaceutical companies in India and abroad. In addition to the API business, the company has a fast-growing contract manufacturing business that caters to several generic and innovation-driven, global pharmaceutical companies.

Laurus has grown rapidly since its first full year of commercial operations in 2008, recording revenues of around Rs 1,200 crore in FY2013-14.
"We are glad to partner with Warburg Pincus in this phase of our growth where we will seek to continue the thrust on innovation and manufacturing excellence in offering cost-effective products and services and foraying into new business segments.
"In addition to securing growth capital, we look forward to leveraging Warburg Pincus' deep domain expertise and global network of relationships to help enter new markets and add to our customer base," Laurus Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Satyanarayana Chava said.

Commenting on the transaction, Niten Malhan, Managing Director and co-head of Warburg Pincus India Pvt Ltd said, "We are excited about the Laurus platform and its exceptional management team focus on innovation and developing a strong organisation has enabled Laurus to emerge as a global leader in the generic ARV API segment and well positioned the company to benefit from its initiatives to enter other attractive segments of the global pharmaceutical industry.