Solara Active Pharma Sciences (SAPS) was formed in the year 2018 by carving out the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) business of Strides Pharma and Sequent Scientific.
Within 6 months of the carve-out taking place, the company went public and listed at a price of 239. It reached a low of 154 on 13th July, ’18 only to hit an all-time high of 1,018 is two years, a 10x jump in the price.
But before delving deeper into this small-cap stock let’s take a step back and have a look at Strides, Sequent and the man behind the show, Mr. Arun Kumar.
Strides Pharma was earlier named as Strides Shasun (after the USD 200 Mn acquisition of Shasun) which was earlier named as Strides Arcolab. The API carve-out of SAPS is not something new. In 2010, Strides carved out Agila Specialities – their injectables business and ended up selling it to Mylan Inc. for USD 1.65 Bn in 2013-14.
I specifically remember this deal since I was holding shares of the erstwhile ‘Strides Arcolab’ and was happy to receive a dividend of Rs. 625 per share in FY14.
Sequent Scientific, is India’s largest animal health company. Their key markets are spread across Europe, Turkey and a host of other countries globally. As early as 8th May, 2020 – the US based Private Equity firm Carlyle group has agreed to acquire a 74% stake in Sequent Scientific for USD 210 Mn (Rs. 1,587 cr.)
See a pattern here?
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