Baba Ramdev’s plan to make Patanjali the country’s largest FMCG company is attracting the attention of private equity and venture capital fund companies. The Haridwar-based company has received expressions of interest from multiple investors, including US-based General Atlantic, according to industry sources.
The sources said Patanjali could be valued at $2 billion (over ₹13,000 crore). Another source close to the development added that a few US-based pharmaceutical companies were also interested.
However, Patanjali turned them down as it did not want to dilute its identity as a home-grown ayurveda brand.
When contacted, a spokesperson for General Atlantic said the company would not comment on market speculation.
A spokesperson for Patanjali, without disclosing the name of any particular company, confirmed that several investors have expressed interest, but no decision to sell any stake has been made yet.
He added that the firm’s focus was to grow as an Indian brand, and it may prefer a low-profit model, depending more on internal accruals and avoiding external investments for now.
In a report released last week, IIFL Institutional Equities said Colgate and Dabur would suffer the most as Patanjali gained in prominence. The research house expects the brand’s sales to reach ₹20,000 crore by FY20. A recent report by brokerage CLSA, which noted that Patanjali had already reached the top of large-scale consumer goods businesses, closed with the comment: “Wish you were listed.”
Patanjali has forced Dabur and Hindustan Unilever to shore up their ayurveda brands, change strategies or make acquisitions.
Despite Baba Ramdev being the face of the brand, he does not own any part of Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. According to the CLSA report, 92 per cent of the company is owned by Acharya Balkrishna, who along with Baba Ramdev started the company to manufacture medicines in the 1990s, while the remaining is held by a UK-based Indian-origin couple — Sarwan and Sunita Podar — who provided initial financing for the Haridwar pharmacy.