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Agrochemical company Safex Chemicals India on Wednesday said PE firm ChrysCapital has invested $50 million (around Rs 362 crore) in the company for a minority stake.

The transaction involves a combination of a secondary sale by existing PE investor BanyanTree Growth Capital, along with a primary raise by the company for growth initiatives, it said.

Founded in 1991 by late SK Jindal and SK Chaudhary, Safex manufactures and sells branded agrochemicals that helps enhance protection and productivity of Indian crops. The company is led by its promoter directors SK Chaudhary, Neeraj Jindal, Rajesh Jindal, and Piyush Jindal. It has a pan-India presence, with a network spanning over 10,000 distributors across 17 states.

As a part of the deal, ChrysCapital Managing Director Raghav Ramdev and industry veteran R Hariharan will join the board of Safex as nominees of ChrysCapital, it added.

Commenting on the investment, Raghav Ramdev, Managing Director, ChrysCapital, said, 

“ChrysCapital is excited to partner with Safex in its growth journey. Agrochemicals is a large and attractive market, and Safex has demonstrated a robust historical track record by significantly outperforming industry growth while maintaining attractive return metrics.”

He added, “Going forward, Safex has multiple growth levers in place — from penetrating deeper in the Indian branded business to entering the technicals segment — which will further propel the company to become a marquee player in the agrochemical industry.”

“We are pleased to welcome ChrysCapital as an investor and partner for the next phase of Safex’s growth journey… We intend to leverage our strong management capabilities and ChrysCapital’s extensive network to drive Safex’s growth by bringing innovative products and solutions to the Indian agrochemical industry through M&A and in-licensing opportunities. Together, we are focussed towards creating value for all our stakeholders” said SK Chaudhary, Founder and Director, Safex.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)