Godrej picks up Avesthagen pie

The Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) Godrej group, to strengthen its presence in biotechnology, has picked up an equity stake in the Bangalore-based Avestha Gengraine Technologies.

The closely-held Avestha Gengraine (Avesthagen) is a fully-integrated discovery-based biotechnology and bio informatics company.

It focuses on convergence between food, pharmaceutical and clinical genomics. Avesthagen provides agriculture and health care solutions. The other stakeholders in Avesthagen are the Tata group and ICICI Ventures.

Godrej group chairman Adi Godrej told Business Standard, "The group through Godrej Industries has already invested in the company. It is indeed a good investment opportunity in biotechnology." Godrej, however, did not divulge the exact equity holding.

Godrej Industries is the country's leading manufacturer of oleochemicals and has a presence in food products such as refined oil and tetrapack fruit beverages.

The Godrej group has a presence in biotechnology through Godrej Agrovet. Godrej Plant Biotech, the wholly owned subsidiary of Godrej Agrovet, is engaged in micro propagation through tissue culture.

Tata Industries has a 5 per cent equity stake in Avesthagen and is represented on its board. In fact, the Tata group is yet to take a view on the growing sector. Group company Rallis has scrapped plans of entering the sector. Tata Industries is the Tata group's arm that identifies and invests in new ventures.

Avesthagen recently signed an agreement with the Raisio Group of Finland to exclusively market Raisio's product, Benecol, in India.

Benecol is a plant-derived product that lowers cholesterol levels. It is widely used as an ingredient in yoghurt, milk-based drinks, margarine, pasta, cereal bars, ready-to-eat casseroles, mayonnaise-based salads and cheese in the US and the European Union. Avesthagen had spun off its research process outsourcing unit into a separate company, Avesthagen Research.