French group Lactalis acquires Hyderabad-based Tirumala Milk

French dairy group Groupe Lactalis SA has acquired a 100 percent stake in India’s Tirumala Milk Products Pvt Ltd, in which private equity firm Carlyle Group held a 20 percent stake, the companies said on Wednesday. According to a person close to the development said the deal is expected to close once necessary approvals are in place. The deal is reportedly valued at $ 275 million ( Rs 1,750 crore). [caption id=“attachment_808665” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative Image only. Reuters[/caption] Danda Brahmanandam, Tirumala’s founder and managing director who along with his three partners owns 76 percent stake in the company was not available for comment. Carlye owns rest of the stake percent. An email sent to Lactalis was not answered till filing this report. Calls made to Lactalis spokesperson Michel NALET were not answered. Carlyle, the world’s second-biggest buyout firm, invested $22 million in the Indian company in 2010. Tirumala Milk has achieved a turnover of Rs 1424 crore  during the last financial year.  Tirumala Milk Products, established in 1998, manufactures  a wide range of dairy products including milk in sachets,  sweets, flavored milk, curd, Milk Powder, Butter, Ghee, Butter  oil, and Ice cream. According to a report in the Economic Times, Tirumala Milk is the second largest milk supplier in south India. Its processing units across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have a cumulative capacity of 1.2 million litres a day. Barclays was financial adviser to Tirumala, while Rothschild was financial adviser to Lactalis. The deal is likely to help Lactalis reduce its reliance on Europe, where it gets 60 percent of its revenue. India  is the world’s third-largest producer of liquid cow’s milk, behind the European Union and US. A report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India sees the dairy industry in India reaching Rs 5 lakh crore in turnover by 2015. With inputs from Agencies