Advanta India has acquired Unicorn Seeds (Unicorn), the seeds business of the Unicorn Group, for Rs 65 crore."The company has acquired 100% shares of Unicorn for a consideration of Rs 65 crore, which includes deferred payment spread over 2-3 years based on performance-related milestones," said Manoj Gupta, chief financial officer, Advanta India.Unicorn Seeds is headquartered in Hyderabad, and has research and development (R&D) facilities in Bangalore and Hyderabad. The seed production activities are concentrated in Karnataka.The Unicorn Group also has other businesses like Unicorn Natural Products and Unicorn Industries.Advanta, in a release issued to the exchanges today, said Unicorn has a strong presence in the domestic and export markets of vegetable seeds and also undertakes custom production of seeds for global customers."Unicorn has revenue of around Rs 25 crores of which Rs 8-9 crore is through exports. The seed business has an EBITDA of 25-28%," said Gupta.With this acquisition, Advanta India's vegetable seed business will become stronger with the addition of crops to its current vegetable product portfolio. Unicorn Seeds' key crops are tomato, eggplant, hot pepper, okra, musk melon, cucumber and water melon.
