Investment in Indian pharma company Granules India by World Bank
World Bank’s private sector lending arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) is going to make a debt investment worth USD 47.5 million in Indian pharma company Granules India, to partly fund its expansion plans, according to a Mint report.
Granules India’s expansion plans include the installation of a greenfield facility for the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
The investment will also be used for expanding capacity and R&D (research and development). The R&D will help in improving the company’s product mix to facilitate production of higher value addition. With the investment, the company will also expand capacities of existing facilities.
It will be constructing an entirely new block in its facility in Bonthapally. The company plans to invest a total of around USD 84 million. Of this, USD 68.5 million will be raised by debt, which includes IFC’s loan. This will mark IFC’s fourth investment in the company.
It had first made a debt and equity investment in 2007. It exited the equity investment in 2014. Following this, it had also provided a Cleaner Production Lending Facility loan in 2009 and in 2011 another debt investment had been made which was also to facilitate expansion. Apart from its investment in Granules, IFC has also invested in other Indian pharma companies, namely, Glenmark, Jubilant Pharma and Vivimed Labs.
