Mumbai: Ajanta Pharma, a major investor in the pharmaceutical sector in the Central Asian countries, is planning to offload a strategic stake in Ajanta Kazakh, a joint venture company with the Kazakhstan government. Ajanta Pharma is holding a majority stake of 87.5-per cent stake in Ajanta Kazakh, while the remaining 12.5 per cent stake is with the Kazakhstan government.

Senior company officials said that as per the current plan, Ajanta Pharma wants to offload its stake in Ajanta Kazakh to major FIs and banks in Kazakhstan. Ajanta Pharma will submit a detailed proposal on this regard to the FIs and banks in Kazakhstan soon.

We have plans to offload some stake in our Kazakhstan project to the FIs and banks as we require more funds for the expansion activities of the project. We are in the process of finalising strategy to offload the stake and a final decision will be taken soon, the officials said. They were, however, reluctant to divulge more details.

Ajanta Kazakh has recently started its operations in Kazakhstan. The company is manufacturing and marketing all the formulations of Ajanta Pharma''s in this Central Asian Republic.

The total cost of this project was $13.5 million. Ajanta Pharma''s equity contribution was $4 million while the Kazakh government invested $0.5 million as equity in the project. The project has a debt component of $9 million. The Export Import Bank of India had allocated Rs 13 crore to Ajanta Pharma for this project.

The company is providing all the expertise and managerial support for the project and focusing more in life-saving drugs for particular ailments prevalent in these countries in a big way like tuberculosis, cancer and diabetics. Ajanta Kazakh is also manufacture cardiovascular and prescription drugs.

Ajanta Pharma is in the process of setting up two joint venture companies in Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan and Tajikistan that are expected to be operational by the yearend. The new plants will add to the production capacity to service adjoining markets.