Blackstone & partners look to buy up to 76% stake in Haldiram snacks valuing the business at around $8 bn

A consortium led by Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity fund, along with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and GIC of Singapore, submitted a non-binding bid late last week to acquire a controlling stake in Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt Ltd, reported The Economic Times. Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt Ltd is the combined packaged snacks and foods business of the Delhi and Nagpur factions of the Agarwal family.

If the deal goes through, this will be the largest private equity buyout in India so far.

Bite into Haldiram stake

As per The Economic Times, Blackstone and its partners are keen to buy 74-76% of the company, valuing the business at $8-8.5 billion (Rs 66,400-70,500 crore). ADIA and GIC are limited partners or sponsors of Blackstone's global funds.

Meanwhile, any transaction will be approved only upon the successful merger that is still underway between the Nagpur and Delhi factions. This is a part of a plan approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) which is expected to be completed in the next three-four months. The merger was approved last April by the Competition Commission of India.

As per The Economic Times, Blackstone has also sounded out its Canadian and other Asian LPs. They may also participate if the deal talks progress or the total cheque size goes up. However there is no guarantee that the non-binding bid will translate into a deal.

Haldiram Rejig

Two factions of the Haldiram family demerged their FMCG or packaged foods business and their restaurants business into two separate entities. Later the Nagpur faction-led Haldiram Foods International Pvt Ltd (HFIPL) and Haldiram Snacks Pvt Ltd (HSPL) led by the Delhi family was merged to create a new entity--Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt Ltd (HSFPL).

Once the merger is completed the Delhi side of the family led by Manohar Agarwal and Madhu Sudan Agarwal will own 55% of Haldiram Snacks Food Pvt Ltd while the Nagpur faction led by Kamalkumar Shivkisan Agrawal will own the rest.

Also watch: Tata Consumer Products and Haldiram's deny stake purchase talks amidst reports