Claris Lifesciences, a Rs 300-crore Ahmedabad-based private company engaged in manufacturing and marketing of life saving products for treating critical illness, has tied up strategic financial partnership with Carlyle Group, Washington, for its major expansion program involving a total capital outlay of Rs 190 crore. Carlyle Group is investing Rs 90 crore ($20 million) in investment plans of Claris through private placement.

Sushil Handa, Chairman of Claris Lifesciences, said, "I am delighted to welcome Carlyle as a strategic partner. As a leading global private equity firm, Carlyle's depth of industry expertise worldwide combined with a strong local understanding will be of significant benefit to Claris. Carlyle's investment comes at an inflection point, with Claris poised to grow multifold in the next couple of years. The expansion plans will significantly enhance Claris' ability to establish its international presence and tap the full potential of the global injectables market."

Shankar Narayana, Managing Director and Head of Carlyle's Growth Capital team of India, said, "Claris is led by seasoned entrepreneurs who have built the company into a strong, world-class player in a very short period. Under their leadership, claris has opted to focus on highly profitable segments with less than three to four players in a single product space to minimize competitive intensity."

Claris is setting up new state-of-the-art facility at Ahmedabad to launch new products. The new facility will be operational by December 2006. Further, the company is expanding its existing capacities to cater the regulated markets. Claris has presence in 66 countries and its facilities received approvals from MHRA, ANVISA, TGA, Invima (Colombia), NAM (Finland), GCC and many more. The company has 571 global product registrations and it filed 1337 global dossiers so far. Its offices are located in several countries like Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, UK, USA, Venezuela, Philippines, etc.

Currently, the company is exporting 40 per cent of its sales with important global brands like Profol, Celemin, CEFO, Metris, Hestar, Celepid, Ciprox and I.V. fluids. According to Handa, the company is targeting US FDA inspectin and approval of its manufacturing facilities in 2006. It also filed 6 ANDAs in US and 40 marketing authorization applications in Europe and Australia.

Handa pointed out that Claris is focusing more on R&D to launch new world class products and likely to spend 7 per cent of its revenues in coming years. With the unique business model, it is targeting turnover of Rs 1000 crore within next three to four years. The international business is likely to contribute over 65-70 per cent in near future. The company's products are competing mainly with the few American and German companies in the international markets. The company is not planning any IPO in immediate future.