Strides Shasun

Strides Shasun acquired a controlling stake in Universal Corporation in 2016.

Strides Shasun, listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange Limited (532531) and National Stock Exchange of India Limited (STAR), is a vertically integrated global pharmaceutical Company headquartered in Bangalore. The Company has presence in Pharmaceutical and Biotech segment. Under the Pharmaceutical segment, the Company has four business verticals, viz., Regulated Markets, Emerging Markets, Institutional Business and Pharmaceutical Services & Active Ingredients. The Bio-generics business was incorporated in 2013 under Stelis Biopharma, a fully owned subsidiary. The Company has global manufacturing foot print with 14 manufacturing facilities spread across India (5), Europe (2) and Africa (7), including 6 US FDA approved facilities and 8 facilities for the emerging markets. The Company has three dedicated R&D facilities in India with global filing capabilities and a strong commercial footprint across 85 countries. The company focuses on developing niche and complex pharmaceutical products across a wide dosage formats for regulated and emerging markets.

Strides Shasun’s African business currently has a strong foothold in West and French Africa. With this acquisition, Strides Shasun will get a strong foothold in the key East African markets and will complement its current capacities of 6 strategically located plants across major geographies in Sub Saharan Africa.

Universal Corporation Limited, Kenya (Universal) is strongly entrenched in the East African territory with its front-end business and has supply contracts with key donor agencies. Universal’s facility is one of the only two WHO Pre-Qualified sites in Sub–Saharan Africa, other than South Africa, which is engaged in the manufacturing of tablets, capsules, ORS, creams, ointments and liquids. Universal has obtained regulatory approvals from regulatory agencies of, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia, Ivory Coast & Sierra Leone.
Under the terms of the agreement, Strides Shasun will hold 51% of the issued capital of Universal and the remaining 49% will continue to be held by the current promoters. The current management team of Universal will continue to drive the business, with technical support from Strides Shasun.

Finnfund

Finnfund is a Finnish development finance Company that provides long-term risk capital for profitable projects in developing countries and Russia. Finnfund finances private projects that involve a Finnish interest. Apart from co-investing with Finnish companies, it can finance ventures that use Finnish technology, cooperate with Finnish partners on a long-term basis or generate major environmental or social benefits.

Additional financing of 10 million US dollars has been granted to Universal Corporation Ltd. (UCL). The Company achieved its expansion and production plan and developed its operations and attained WHO quality certification.

The additional financing made Finnfund, UCL’s main source of finance. At the same time, UCL has become one of Finnfund’s largest equity investments.

“UCL uses a waste water treatment system supplied by Galvatek of Finland, which minimises emissions. It is intended to serve as an example of environmental concern to other production plants in Kenya. Having been pre-qualified by the World Health Organisation, UCL has become one of the first African producers eligible to participate in international bidding to provide malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS drugs.

Their products have been used to cure the diseases of hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people. In Kenya and many other African countries, many pharmaceutical products on sale do not contain sufficient amount of active ingredients, while effective medications are often too expensive. UCL’s mission is to produce quality pharmaceuticals accessible to all.