Biyani sold its entire 44% stake in Capital Foods to Artal Group of Europe

Kishore Biyani led Future Consumer Enterprises (FCEL) on 9 December 2013 sold its entire 44 percent stake in Capital Foods to a European private equity fund Artal Group for 180 crore rupees. This marks the end of Biyani’s seven year old investment in Capital Foods.

As a result, the value of Capital Foods has increased to 400 crore rupees. Capital Foods is a domestic food company that makes a range of products under the brands Ching's Secret and Smith & Jones. The rest of the stake in Mumbai-based Capital Foods is held by the founder-chairman Ajay Gupta.

Biyani entered the Capital Foods through Future Ventures and had pumped in 13 crore rupees in 2006. Last week, the group announced it has exited its investment in apparel brand Biba having sold its 28% to Warburg Pincus and Faering Capital for 300 crore rupees.

While Biyani is paving his way out of non-core businesses, FCEL aims to become 10000 crore rupees FMCG player in another five-six years. To achieve this gargantuan size, Biyani has signed a long-term agreement to launch food and beverage brand Sunkist in India through a long-term licensing agreement.

The 1.4 billion dollar, California-based Sunkist Growers licenses its brand across more than 80 countries and is widely known for its presence in the citrus category.

Artal's entry into India follows the interest of several large European investors and family offices like Verlinvest that have chased F&B deals in India.

Artal is part of the New York-based Invus Group, which manages 4 billion dollar in funds, and is headed by a low-key investor Raymond Debbane.

The Invus Group manages money for wealthy European families through its vertical Artal and is famous for its investment in American weight loss company Weight Watchers International.