Carlyle in talks to buy big stake in former Mylan India CEO’s company

Mumbai: Global private equity fund Carlyle Group plans to create an investment platform to acquire pharmaceutical and life sciences assets in India, in a sign of continuing global investor interest in Indian pharma firms.

Carlyle will be joining hands with former Mylan India CEO Hari Babu to create the platform. At present, Carlyle is in discussions to acquire a substantial stake in Viyash Pharmaceuticals, owned by Babu and Srihari Raju Kalidindi, former executive director of Laurus Labs.

Through Viyash, Carlyle plans to deploy about $300 million in India, sources said. Set up in 2019, Hyderabad-based Viyash is engaged in manufacturing of active pharma ingredients (API) and bulk drugs.


“Both of them (Carlyle and Babu) were collaborating together for some time now. So, this financial investment by Carlyle in Hari Babu’s company is expected to act as a vehicle to acquire pharma assets,” said one of the sources mentioned above.

Carlyle declined to comment. Mails and messages sent to Hari Babu did not elicit any response till the press time.

“Carlyle Group is doing diligence on Viyash assets. Any transaction will happen only after the diligence process. After the Serum Institute fire incident, Carlyle had stepped up diligence on safety measures on investee companies,” said another source close to Carlyle. Earlier, Carlyle along with Babu was in talks to acquire bulk drug maker RA Chem but the deal did not fructify.