Asian investment firm PAG plans to acquire a significant minority stake in speciality injectables company RK Pharma Inc. and its subsidiaries, according to people familiar with the deal.
Besides secondary shares sales, transaction includes primary funding that will aid the company to expand business.
The total deal size is around $200 million, one of the people cited above said.
PAG has the option of increasing its stake at a later stage, one of the people cited above said, on condition of anonymity. An early investor Signet Healthcare Partners is exiting with this deal.
RK Pharma makes injectables, sterile ophthalmic and dermal products, and has operations in India and the US, according to its website. The company was founded in 2018 by Ravishanker Kovi.
It has 2 subsidiaries Apicore India and Aktinos Pharma. Apicore provides research and development services and also has API manufacturing facilities in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
RK Pharma also has an injectables manufacturing facility in New York.
In India, the company makes APIs for early phase pharmaceutical research and branded products, according to its website. Apicore and Aktinos make complex APIs and Intermediates. Archis Pharma, another subsidiary, is commercialization arm of RK Pharma Group, its website said. PAG and New Jersey-headquartered RK Pharma did not respond to a request for comment.
Citadel Management and EY were advisors to the transaction.
PAG, formerly Pacific Alliance Group, is led in India by Nikhil Srivastava, a former KKR executive.
This is PAG’s fourth pharma deal in the last two years.
In its first investment, PAG backed a joint platform for active pharmaceutical ingredients or bulk drugs with CX Partners and Samara Capital to acquire Chennai-based Anjan Drugs in 2021. In 2022, it acquired Optimus Drugs in a $260 million transaction.
PAG’s bulk drug platform called Sekhmet Pharmaceuticals appointed Anil Khubchandani, a new chief executive officer, last week. The platform expects to invest in multiple manufacturing facilities dedicated to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and formulations as part of its bet on global API supply chain.
In pharmaceuticals segment, in June 2021, PAG separately acquired a majority stake in Acme Formulation Pvt Ltd.
In private equity, PAG is sector agnostic and has invested in Indian real estate.
Its other major investment was acquiring a majority stake in Edelweiss Wealth Management in 2021 and renaming the business Nuvama.
PAG invests in credit private equity and real assets and manages over $50 billion in assets from 320 fund managers, according to its website.
