Nearly a year after losing out Paras Pharmaceuticals to Reckitt Benckiser Group plc of the UK, Emami Ltd has once again lost its battle for Paras Pharma's personal care business to Marico on Wednesday.

According to Mr N.H. Bhansali, CEO, finance, strategy and business development, Emami, personal care is a highly competitive industry and it is difficult to provide similar valuations to personal care as that for healthcare.

“Last time when they (Actis LLP) were into the market we were aggressively looking at the entire range of brands (including healthcare and personal care). This time the deal was for Paras' personal care brands. Personal care is a competitive business and it cannot have valuations like healthcare brands,” Mr Bhansali told Business Line.

In an exclusive interview with Business Line on November 30, 2011, Mr R.S. Agarwal, Executive Chairman, Emami Group, had said, “Every deal has a valuation and we will not want to overvalue any deal. We should not over commit. We will not go beyond our resources, whether it is financial or manpower. Proper debt equity ratio should be maintained before one plans to go in for raising debts for acquisition.”