Godrej consumers buys out Raymond's FMCG business for ₹2825 crore

The Gautam Singhania-led Raymond Group on Thursday announced its exit from the consumer care business by selling condom brands KamaSutra and Premium and deodorant brands Park Avenue and DS to the Godrej Group for ₹2,825 crore in an all-cash deal.

However, the Raymond group will continue to manufacture these brands, sell them to B2B consumers and export. This means that Raymond will contract-manufacture and sell these brands to Godrej Consumer Care. It also means the exit is only from the consumer facing side of this business in the domestic market.

Its condom plant is in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, while it sources the deos from contract manufacturers.

The Raymond Group also announced the demerger of its consumer facing/lifestyle businesses into Raymond Consumer Care (RCCL), which will, upon merger, get listed. Raymond shareholders will get four shares of the RCCL for every five shares they hold.

The group expects the demerger process to be completed over the next 15 months.

Group chairman and managing director Singhania, who owns 49% in RCCL, said, he will not take a single penny from the sale but the entire proceeds will go into the company (RCCL). A portion of the money will be used to completely repay the net debt of the group, which as of December 2022 stood at ₹920 crore, and gross debt of ₹2,000 crore.

Raymond will now be a pure-play realty business entity along with investments in engineering (JK Files, which is the world's largest files maker) and denim businesses, he added.

In a separate statement, Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) said with this acquisition the company is entering the deodorants and sexual wellness categories.

The Godrej Group expects the all-cash deal, through a slump sale route, to be completed by May 10, 2023.