Silver Leaf Oak has acquired a 10 per cent stake in Syngene International, the research subsidiary of Biocon, and signals a step towards the arm’s listing on stock exchanges.

As part of this transaction, Mauritius-based Silver Leaf, an investment vehicle advised by India Value Fund Advisors (IVFA), will acquire the stake from Biocon Research Ltd (BRL) — a subsidiary of Syngene International — for ₹380 crore or a tenth of Syngene’s total enterprise value, which is estimated at ₹3,800 crore.

This development comes a week after Biocon bought back its 7.7 per cent stake in Syngene from GE Capital; at that time, Syngene’s total enterprise value was ₹2,800 crore. Since then, the valuation has gone up by ₹1,000 crore, company officials said.

After this transaction, Biocon and BRL will jointly hold 85.54 per cent in Syngene.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon’s Chairman and Managing Director, said in a statement that this transaction was part of the overall strategic plan for Syngene and sets a new benchmark as it prepares to list the company. IVFA manages or has advised four investment funds with a combined corpus of over $1.2 billion, according to company officials.

Talking to BusinessLine , Arun Chandavarkar, CEO and Joint MD of Biocon, said the money will be used to continue work on its various R&D activities.

For example, Biocon recently announced the commencement of the third phase of global trials for its insulin drug Glargine, in partnership with Mylan. Glargine is a drug which is similar to insulin but helps in controlling blood sugar levels for a longer period.

This investment comes at a time when the prospects in the biopharma R&D outsourcing segment are beginning to look up after a flat run since the onset of the global financial crisis.

According to Peter Baines, Director, Syngene International, spends are currently low but a revival is happening with pharmaceutical majors exploring blockbuster drug launches.

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