ChrysCapital-Led Open Offer for Novartis India Sees Minimal Acceptance

ChrysCapital-led consortium's open offer for additional shares of Novartis India Ltd concluded with minimal public acceptance, with only 40 shares taken up at ₹860.64 per share. The offer found no takers as the drugmaker's shares rallied in recent months, rising more than 72% since February, when the offer was announced, with the scrip trading at Rs 1,485. Post-offer public shareholding now stands at 29.32%.

In February, ChrysCapital agreed to acquire Swiss pharmaceutical major Novartis AG's entire stake in its Mumbai-listed unit for Rs 1,445.8 crore ($159 million) and buy a 70.68% stake in Novartis India Ltd. The consortium — comprising WaveRise Investments Limited, ChrysCapital Fund X, and Two Infinity Partners — acquired the stake via an off-market transfer. WaveRise Investments acquired 1,39,38,382 shares (56.45%), ChrysCapital Fund X acquired 25,47,189 shares (10.32%), and Two Infinity Partners acquired 9,65,109 shares (3.91%). Post-acquisition, WaveRise Investments and ChrysCapital Fund X have been classified as promoters, while Two Infinity Partners has been classified as part of the promoter group.

The acquirers also made an open offer to acquire another 26% stake in Novartis India from its public shareholders for around Rs 552 crore at Rs 860.64 per share. This would have increased ChrysCapital's ownership to over 96% in the company. However, public tendering was negligible, with only 182 shares tendered in total. Following the acceptance of 40 shares, the post-offer shareholding of the acquirers and persons acting in concert stands at 1,74,50,720 shares, and the shareholding of public shareholders adjusted to 72,40,077 shares, representing 29.32% of the voting share capital. Axis Capital Limited, the manager to the offer, submitted the post-offer advertisement to BSE Limited on July 10, 2026.

The divestment follows a strategic review announced and conducted by Novartis starting February 2024. The closing of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions precedent and is expected to close in Q3 2026. Upon completion of this transfer of shares, Novartis will complete its transformation into a pure-play innovative medicines company. Novartis will continue its presence in India through Novartis Healthcare (NHPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Novartis group in India. NHPL includes the commercial arm of Novartis in India, the Novartis Corporate Center in Hyderabad, and R&D teams, which currently conduct clinical trials at more than 300 trial sites in the country. The stake sale comes at a time when the India unit has been witnessing decline in sales.

ChrysCapital executed the buyout in February through its 10th flagship fund. The fund's $2.2 billion corpus is 60% higher than the $1.35-billion ChrysCap raised three years ago for its ninth fund. Novartis India joins a long list of pharmaceutical companies that ChrysCapital has backed. ChrysCapital's healthcare portfolio includes La Renon Healthcare, Intas Pharmaceuticals, Eris Lifesciences, and Corona Remedies. It had invested $70 million in Gujarat-based La Renon Healthcare in 2024. Some of its notable exits in the pharma space include GVK Bio, Zydus Cadilla, Torrent Pharma, Ipca Laboratories, Curatio Healthcare, and Mankind Pharma.