Sunil Mittal & Bros are in a sell-off mode to unlock their wealth. After selling minority stakes in Bharti Tele-Ventures and Bharti Telesoft, the Bharti group announced the sale of Bharti Healthcare, one of the oldest group companies, to Capsugel, a division of Pfizer. Bharti Healthcare makes gelatin capsules.

Capsugel will acquire a 92.76% stake in Bharti Healthcare from its promoters at Rs. 71 per share. This places the company’s total valuation at Rs. 88 crore. The deal will mark the exit of the Bharti group from the venture. The remaining stake is said to be held by retail investors who did not participate in the company’s recent buy-back offer. The promoters had offered to buy back the company’s shares from the market prior to its eventual sale, in order to delist the company from the bourses.

The Bharti group has also announced that it would continue to buy the company’s outstanding stake from shareholders who did not participate in the buyback at the offer price of Rs. 83 per share for six months, effective from the delisting date of October 11, 2005.

The acquisition will mark the entry of Capsugel into India. Pfizer said it had selected Bharti Healthcare on the basis of its strong results and reputation built by the leadership of the Bharti group. The Pfizer arm is expected to bring worldclass manufacturing practices and quality standards to the company, besides getting new clients for its products.

(The Economic Times)