IFC picks up 11% in Granules India for Rs 26 cr

New Delhi, May 9 (UNI) International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private equity arm of World Bank, has picked up 11.48 per cent stake in Granules India for Rs 26 crore.

''This would be the last round of major equity dilution for the company in the foreseeable future and marks the completion of the current fund raising exercise that Granules announced in December,'' Granules India Managing Director Krishna Prasad said.

IFC is also considering a long-term loan assistance of nine million dollars (Rs 36 crore) to the company.

''We are looking forward to this investment of debt or equity, which will strengthen the balance sheet of the company and gear us for delivering the high growth. This reiterates the strength of Granules and will boost the internal systems to meet high-growth phase we are getting into,'' Mr Prasad added.

The board of directors of the company yesterday passed a resolution entailing the issue of up to 22 lakh shares to IFC at Rs 118.10 each, subject to shareholders' approval.

As per the information available on IFC website, it proposes to invest 15 million dollars out of the estimated project cost of 32 million dollars.

The key sites for the said project are Bonthapally and Gaigillapur in Hyderabad. For the quarter ended March 31, 2007 Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) like Goldman Sachs Investments (Mauritius) Ltd and Morgan Stanley and Company International Ltd hold 5.29 per cent and 4.84 per cent stake respectively in Granules India, data available on BSE showed.

UNI