KKR commits $78m to India's Kwality

The company will use the new capital to add a new retail segment, to work alongside its current business-to-business (B2B) operations. Part of the capital will also be used to pay off debt. Sidhant Gupta, a director at Kwality, told the Economic Times that the investment will be made in two tranches; the first installment of INR3 billion has already been received.

Kwality was founded in 1992 and has six milk processing plants in India, producing butter, milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products. More than 70% of its revenue comes from providing ingredients to brands such as Hindustan Unilever and Cadbury's; the company also produces retail products under the Dairy Best brand.

For the year ended March 2015, Kwality reported revenue of INR53 billion, up from INR46 billion the year before. Profit rose from INR1.3 billion to INR14 billion over the same period.

"It gives us immense confidence that KKR has believed in our growth story and is backing our expansion plans," Sanjay Dinghra, managing director at Kwality, said in a filing. "This investment would support a giant leap in this direction enabling faster growth and achieving high profitability. Further, I believe KKR's strong pedigree and rich experience combined with our management capabilities is going to unlock significant value and will benefit all stakeholders."

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Industrials
• PIPEs
• Expansion
• India
• KKR