Everstone Capital to invest Rs 150Cr in Crystal Crop Protection

Mid-market private equity firm Everstone Capital is all set to invest Rs 150 crore in Crystal Crop Protection Pvt Ltd (earlier known as Crystal Phosphates), a manufacturer of crop protection chemicals, atleast two sources briefed with the matter told VCCircle.

The Delhi-headquartered company is engaged in the business of products like fungicides, insecticides, herbicides besides agri equipment such as spray pumps among other categories. Founded by first generation entrepreneur NK Aggarwal, the agrochemical company is now run actively by his son Ankur Aggarwal who spearheads the operations.

For the year ended March 2010, it had revenues of around Rs 500 crore with healthy net profit of Rs 31.5 crore according to VCCedge, the financial research platform of VCCircle. Crystal is one of the fastest growing Indian agro-chemical companies and is expected to clock more than Rs 850 crore in revenue this financial year, one of the source added.

The fund raising is expected to help Crystal further consolidate its position in the Indian market, and explore inorganic growth opportunities in the agri- space in India and abroad.

While an Everstone Capital spokesperson declined to comment, Crystal Crop Protection could not be reached immediately for a comment.

This is the second major PE investment in the agro-chemicals space in the recent months. In Aug 2011, Sequoia Capital had invested in PI Industries, a listed player in the space.

Everstone Capital that manages over $1.5 billion in capital, across two PE funds, one real estate fund and one industrial warehousing fund, was co-founded by Sameer Sain and Atul Kapur who remain the firm’s managing partners. It recently closed a $580 million PE fund for the Indian market.

Early this year, in a large scale organisational rejig, Everstone Capital promoted nine of its employees to the position of managing director and also re-allocated some responsibilities for key senior people.

It has active investments in consumer-centric space like Sula Wines, Pan India Foods Solutions, Faces Cosmetics and VLCC, they have also made investments in the infrastructure space in companies like Regen, Asian Genco , BE Billimoria and Global Hospitals.