Piramal R&D arm valued at $480-500 m

The R&D arm will be listed on the exchanges by June 2008, and the parent company is scouting for strategic partners in the new division through the sale of a minority stake in the company. The Piramal group?s flagship company, NPIL, will also be re-christened as Piramal Healthcare Ltd. A large part of valuation for the R&D unit comprises three molecules which are in various stages of clinical trials. While one molecule is being developed for the therapeutic area of oncology, the rest are for contaning inflammation. ?We hope to have eight molecules in the clinical-trial stage from the current five,? said Swati Piramal, director, NPIL. The company is in talks with strategic investors for the hived-off unit, but nothing has been finalised so far. ?We will have a clearer picture once the listing of the company takes place,? Piramal added.

Meanwhile, NPIL, which is in its 20th year of operations, unveiled a new corporate identity on Tuesday. As reported by FE in its edition on January 4, 2008, the company has hired Bangalore-based Momentum Strategy Consultants as advisors for developing the new corporate identity. Apart from Piramal Healthcare and Piramal Life Sciences, other companies that will be a part of the group are Piramal Diagnostics Services Pvt Ltd (earlier NPIL Laboratories and Diagnostics Pvt Ltd) and Piramal Glass Ltd (earlier Gujarat Glass). Indiareit Fund Advisors Pvt Ltd will continue to be known by its existing name. ?When we acquired Nicholas Pharmaceuticals in 1988, we were a Rs 18-crore company, but now we have a turnover of Rs 3,000 crore. From having just one factory, we now own 13 factories in India and North America,? said Ajay Piramal, chairman, NPIL. ?We thought this would the right time for us to build on the core values of our group – knowledge, action and care – to meet the challenges of globalisation,? he added. The company also has plans to foray into specialty clinics through Piramal Diagnostics.