Carlyle Group invests Rs112 crore in Visen Industries

Carlyle Group, the Washington-based private equity firm yesterday invested Rs112 crore ($25 million) in India's Visen Industries Ltd, a manufacturer of water-based polymer emulsions.

Carlyle has invested the money from its $1.04 billion fund, FCV III, a part of its Asia Growth Partners IV (CAGP IV), which invests in invests in in key Asian markets such as India, Korea and China.

"Visen's business is a play on the strong consumption led demand growth across paints, textiles, adhesives and construction in India and other emerging markets. Visen has a clear track record of growth and a well defined strategic roadmap for future expansion," said Carlyle Asia Growth Capital head and managing director, Wayne Tsou in a statement.

"We are very happy to be associated with The Carlyle Group and hope to leverage their relationships as we continue to build Visen into a global player in the polymer emulsion industry," said Vijay Nair, Visen's managing director.

Mumbai-based Visen manufactures water-based polymer emulsions with a capacity of 20,000 MT spread across three manufacturing units located at Tarapur, Silvassa and Jammu. The company expects its capacity to jump to 2,20,000 MT per year after its plant in the UAE coming on stream later this year.

Having popular like brand names such as Visicryl, Visimer, Visical, Visitex and others, these products are catered to paints & coatings, textiles (both woven & non-woven) adhesives and construction industries for their multivarious applications.

With clients like Asian Paints, Berger Paints, Kansai Nerolac and Jotun Paints, Visen has been growing at an annual rate of around 50 per cent since the past three years. Its current turnover is over $100 million.