LVMH wants to back Ramdev’s business

French luxury group LVMH has shown interest to Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. 

According to the statement given by Ravi Thakran, managing partner, L Catterton Asia, “We would love to work with him if we can find a model. I know his model is not to work with multinationals and with foreign money.” 

The L Catterton private equity fund co-owned by LVMH is ready to bet $500 million — almost half of its remaining Asia fund—to buy a stake in the enterprise that has emerged as one of India’s biggest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies with a range of ayurveda-based products in the past few years.

 

“Patanjali has the potential to go to the world and I can tell you today that Patanjali has been a disruptor in its category, as strong a disruptor as many of the global disruptors are and it has taken Indian-ness and celebrated it with pride. Patanjali could sell its products in markets such as the US, Japan, China, South Korea and Europe and L Catterton could help in that effort.”

 

I would welcome a chance to meet Baba Ramdev and tell him this is a case of not just being an Indian leader but a global leader. This company genuinely has a chance,” Thakran said.

 

They maybe per se against multinationals encroaching into their lives and, therefore, their theme to go Indian is agreat one. But they may not be averse to seek help from great brand builders to build their brand better and to tell the story better and we want to celebrate the same Indian-ness better. It would be great to find a marriage”, he added.

 

Acharaya Balkrishna, Patanjali chief executive said, “The company isn’t looking to dilute equity but is seeking about Rs 5,000 crore in loans in “Indian currency” at rates that are lower than those offered by banks. He said UBS has lined up meetings with several foreign investors to this end. “We will not give stake to anyone.”

 

“The world moves with help from one another and if somebody wants to help us then it has to be within the radius of our conditions. We won’t accept any money in equity or shares but when the country is using foreign technology for progress and if foreign money comes and gives us on our conditions we will accept”, he added.

 

L Catterton Asia has a corpus of $1.25 billion and the company generally invests in the range of $100-200 million per company but is prepared to bet as much as $500 million on Patanjali.