Carlyle Asia Growth Partners, the Asian growth equity investment unit of The Carlyle Group, has invested $22 million to acquire an undisclosed stake in Tirumala Milk Products, an Indian dairy company.
Tirumala was established in 1998 by first generation entrepreneurs and today, it is the second largest private dairy company in South India. It manufactures and markets a variety of dairy products including pasteurised milk, curd, butter, ghee (clarified butter), ice cream and flavoured milk. Tirumala has an installed capacity of 1.35 million litres per day across five processing plants.
The investment will be used to expand the company’s procurement network, processing capacity, expansion into new markets and for the manufacture of new value added products. “Our partnership with Carlyle will add to our financial strength, and enhance operations by bringing in international best practices and new dairy technology from around the world,” Brahmanandam, joint managing director of Tirumala, said in a statement.
“Growing disposable incomes, increasing urbanisation and a shift in favour of organised players is fuelling demand for high quality branded milk and dairy products in the Indian market” and Tirumala’s business model is focused on fulfilling this need,” Shankar Narayanan, managing director and head of the Carlyle Growth Capital team in India, said in a statement.
Carlyle made the investment from Carlyle Asia Growth Partners IV, which closed on $1.04 billion in June 2009. In all, Carlyle Asia Growth Partners manages in excess of $2 billion, making it amongst Asia’s largest growth equity platforms. The group is focused on investments in China, India, Korea and other key Asian markets and takes a sector-agnostic approach to investments.
The group has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Seoul.
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