Advent International is acquiring a 50.1 per cent in stake in Suven Pharmaceuticals for Rs 6,313 crore. The private equity firm is also coming out with an open offer for the shareholders of Suven Pharma, which will take the deal size to Rs 9,589 crore.

This is the largest inbound deal in the domestic pharmaceutical sector in 2022.

Advent eventually aims to merge Suven Pharma with Cohance Lifesciences, its portfolio company, which is also into contract development and manufacturing apart from clinical research and active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) & formulations.

Suven Pharma was demerged from Suven Life Sciences in 2020 and is one of the leading contract development and manufacturing organisations (CDMO) in India.

Suven Pharma said in a regulatory filing that Advent has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a significant stake in the company from the Jasti family, which held 60 per cent of its equity during the period ended September 30.

Advent is acquiring 12,75,37,043 shares of the domestic company. These shares will be acquired at Rs 495 per share.

The purchase price represents a discount of nearly a per cent to the closing price of the Suven Pharma scrip last Friday.

In line with Sebi regulations, Advent is also coming out with an open offer to acquire 6,61,86,889 shares, or 26 per cent of the company’s equity, at the same price of Rs 495 per share.

The Jasti family are not selling out their holding completely as they will own 9.9 per cent after the acquisition.

A statement from Suven Pharma added that after the completion of this acquisition, Advent intends to explore the merger of Cohance with Suven, to build a leading endto-end CDMO and merchant API player, servicing the pharma and speciality chemicals markets.

The merger will be evaluated by the board taking into consideration the strategic rationale to Suven’s public shareholders and will be subject to regulatory approvals and other customary approvals.

“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 and R&D. We will also look at acquiring synergistic businesses globally, to further build capabilities and gain new customer access,’’ Pankaj Patwari, managing director at Advent International, said.

Advent was recently in the news for another transaction in India when it acquired 9.99 per cent of Yes Bank.

Last year, it acquired Eureka Forbes from the Shapoorji Pallonji group for an enterprise value of Rs 4,400 crore.

“We are delighted to bring Advent into Suven Pharma as a strategic investor. We have built a business with industry-leading growth & margins… Advent is the ideal partner for us, with deep expertise in healthcare, and a global network of professionals and experts.

“Their experience and resources will launch the next phase of growth for Suven Pharma. This move will benefit the Suven platform immensely.

“The proposed collaboration with Cohance is a win-win for Suven and its public shareholders. It will help us offer a broader set of services and multi-sites to our customers,” Venkateswarlu Jasti, managing director at Suven Pharma said.

However, the stock markets were disappointed by the deal value, resulting in the Suven Pharma share ending with a loss of 5.22 per cent at Rs 472.20 on the BSE.

At the current price, it has a market cap of Rs 120,21 crore.