Days after Mankind Pharma inked a ₹13,630 crore deal to buy Bharat Serums and Vaccines (BSV), its top management said BSV would run as an independent business, reporting to the Mankind board.

BSV presented itself as an attractive opportunity, not just as a business entity, but also because it had a capable management team that had turned it around to what it is today, Rajeev Juneja, Mankind Pharma Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, told businessline. In fact, Mankind had looked at BSV five years ago as well, but it is a very different company today, he said, of the company it revisited late last year.

Giving broad contours of the integration process, Juneja said, TTK Healthcare’s human pharma business - acquired by then Advent-backed BSV about two years ago – would be absorbed into Mankind’s consumer healthcare business. Mankind expects the BVS acquisition to bring in synergistic benefits of ₹50-100 crore in 12 -24 months, he added.

‘Hardly any overlap’

Mankind had said last week, it was acquiring 100 per cent equity in BSV, a move that strengthened its presence in women’s health and infertility market, besides giving it access to high-entry-barrier products and complex research platforms. In March 2022, Mankind had bought Panacea Biotec’s domestic formulations business for India and Nepal at ₹1,872 crore.

“Now our focus is 100 per cent on Bharat Serums,” he said, replying to whether the Delhi-based company’s appetite for acquisitions was satiated. The company will generate ₹4,000 crore through internal accruals to fund the acquisition, and the rest would be a mix of debt and minority equity, he said.

Since others were also reportedly in the race for BSV, Juneja said, the clincher was that their business was aligned. Mankind looks to complete the transaction in another four months. On whether they would undertake a rationalisation exercise of people or products, Juneja said, there was hardly any overlap of products. Mankind’s revenues for FY24, stood at ₹10,335 crore and BSV clocked ₹1,723 crore. Mankind’s net cash balance was ₹3,260 crore, as on March 31, 2024. And in May this year, its board had given it a “blanket approval” to raise ₹7,500 crore, with an eye on the then upcoming acquisition.

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