The Parikh family, the erstwhile promoters of Zandu Pharma, will soon exit ZCL Chemicals, the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) business, after selling a 74 per cent stake in ZCL to private equity firm Advent International for about Rs 2,000 crore.

According to the contours of the deal signed on Wednesday, Advent International will immediately acquire a 74 per cent stake in the company, including 19 per cent owned by Morgan Stanley PE. The remaining 26 per cent of the stake will be bought after regulatory approvals. The deal requires approvals from the government, which would take around six months to materialise.

“Morgan Stanley has stayed invested for about four years and wanted to exit. So, we launched a process to give them an exit, which got a tremendous response from the investors’ community, especially the buyout funds. Many of the investors wanted to acquire a majority stake, and I don’t think the API industry had got so much interest ever,” ZCL Chemicals Executive Director Nihar Parikh said.

The deal includes the company’s facility in Ankleshwar, Gujarat, offices in Mumbai and 450 employees. The company is into manufacturing of APIs and advanced intermediates and rakes in 62 per cent of business from Europe, followed by 25 per cent from North America, 7 per cent from the rest of the world and 6 per cent from India.

ZCL Chemicals had been carved out from Zandu Pharma when Zandu the latter was acquired by fast-moving consumer goods company Emami in 2008. Mr Parikh, then 22, was an intern at a multinational corporation in Belgium. He moved to India and took over the day-to-day management of ZCL Chemicals later on.