Organon Participations BV, the pharmaceutical arm of Akzonobel Industries BV, The Netherlands, is to increase its stake in its Indian subsidiary, Infar(India) Ltd, to 100 per cent. Consequently the company is offering the investors of Infar (India) Ltd a price of Rs.285 per share in a cash offer to buy out Infar (India) Limited shares from the public.

Currently, Organon Participations BV has a 50.43 per stake in the equity capital of Infar (India) Ltd. It has entered into an agreement with some of the Indian promoters to acquire an additional 25.52 per cent stake thus increasing its stake post acquisition to 75.96 per cent. The cash offer is to acquire the remaining stake from the Indian public, the remaining stake being at 14.04 per cent.

If Organon manages to acquire the 14.04 stake, it will succeed in increasing its stake to 90 per cent. It plans to bring in capital to increase its stake to 100 per cent. If Organon succeeds in reaching a 90 per cent shareholding, it will have the option to delist the shares of Infar (India) Ltd from the stock exchanges where it is currently trading. On increasing the stake, and delisting thereafter, Infar (India) Ltd will be renamed as Organon India Pvt Ltd.

Infar (India) Ltd recorded a turnover of Rs. 125 crore in the last financial year with a net profit of Rs. 12 crore. It is expecting to increase its turnover for the current financial year by 20 per cent.

Infar(India) Ltd operates in the niche gynaecology segment with well known brands such as Recagon, Pregnyl, Orgagest, Nuvir, Pregcolor card to name a few. Most products of the company are imported from Organon while it manufactures some of them at its facility in Calcutta and under licencing agreement with companies in Mumbai and Hyderabad.

The company started its operations in the country in 1983 as Organon India Pvt Ltd before renaming itself as Infar (India) Ltd due to the then existing FERA (Foreign Exchange Regulation Act) rules, now called FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act).

Infar (India) Ltd has also been marketing some of the products that it developed in the country. Infar (India) Ltd has also presence in the anaesthesia segment too. Its veterinary division was hived off into a separate company, Intravet India Ltd, a few years back.