BackRaymond buys Ansell’s stake in their joint venture JK Ansell
The acquisition of Ansell's stake in JK Ansell gives Raymond full ownership of the KamaSutra brand of condoms
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Mumbai: Twenty-one years after it formed an equal joint venture with Australia’s Ansell Ltd to make KamaSutra condoms, Raymond Ltd has bought out the partner’s entire stake for an undisclosed amount.
JK Investo Trade (India) Ltd, a unit of Raymond, owned half the stake in the JV while Ansell held the other half. With the transaction, JK Ansell becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of JK Investo Trade.
Kamasutra was launched by Raymond subsidiary JK Chemicals Ltd in 1991. Raymond tied up with Ansell in 1996.
“As a part of our Raymond Re-Imagined journey, scaling up and creating a strong FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) business is an important driver of value creation for the group," Raymond chairman and managing director Gautam Singhania said in a press statement.
“With this acquisition, the combined FMCG business is expected to be Rs800 crore consumer value in FY18," said Giriraj Bagri, president of FMCG business at Raymond in the statement. “This gives us the scale and opportunity to rejuvenate our FMCG brands and strengthen sales and distribution network. Having outlined a detailed roadmap, Brand KamaSutra is poised to become Top 5 global brands in the Sexual Wellness category."
JK Ansell has two businesses—sexual wellness and personal care, and surgical gloves. As part of the same deal, Raymond has sold the surgical gloves business back to Pacific Dunlop Holdings (Singapore) Pte Ltd, an Ansell group company.
Raymond’s step-down subsidiary JK Helene Curtis makes the Park Avenue brand of men’s grooming products. The company’s consumer goods business reaches 250,000 retail outlets and 90,000 pharmacies in India, and exports to South-east Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Raymond said in the press statement.
Other leading brands in India’s market for condoms are Mankind Pharma’s Manforce, TTK Protective Devices’ Skore and UK-based Reckitt Benckiser’s Durex.
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