Apax Partners, the London-headquartered private equity giant with $10 billion assets under management, is expected to throw its weight behind one of the bidders who will be interested in buying some brands of Henkel India - primarily in the laundry and personal care segments.
Apax Partners, which specialises in leveraged buyouts, is understood to be looking at having a strong presence in the FMCG sector in India. “With the sale of some of the brands of Henkel India coming up, Apax is keen to leverage on this opportunity,” investment bankers close to the deal noted. Apax Partners did not comment on its plans. Apax Partners in the recent past had backed iGate Technologies to buyout Patni Computers.
Henkel India has mandated HSBC India for the sale. According to industry information, Godrej Consumer Products, Emami, Wipro, Dabur and Jyothy Laboratories may be interested in this transaction.
Henkel India is a 25-year old publicly held joint venture between German consumer products firm Henkel AG holding 50.97 per cent, while Tamilnadu Petroproducts holds 16.6 per cent.
Henkel India recently announced it is looking to sell some of its brands, most of them from its hair care division.
Henkel India owns the Margo soap, Henko, Neem, Fa and Chek detergent. Henkel had acquired Margo soap, Neem toothpaste and Chek detergent from the erstwhile Calcutta Chemical Company almost a decade back.
Margo is the biggest brand in its portfolio with an annual revenue of close to Rs 100 crore. Investment bankers further added that Henkel is looking at selling its high-end haircare and colour product Schwarzkopf. With the sale of some of the brands in India, the $17 billion Dusseldorf-based conglomerate is likely to focus on its industrial business in India.
Initially, Henkel and Spic joined hands under a joint venture Spic Fine Chemicals, which was renamed as Henkel Spic India in the mid-1990s. Later, HSIL was merged with Henkel India (formerly Calcutta Chemical Co). With this sale, A C Muthiah led Tamilnadu Petroproducts is expected to step out of the joint venture as well.
For the calendar year 2010, Henkel India had net sales of Rs 533 crore and a net loss of Rs 51 crore on a standalone basis.
