IVFA to acquire pest control firm

Mumbai, February 6:

India Value Fund Advisors (IVFA) has teamed up with Hicare founder A Mahendran to acquire a pest control company from Danish multinational ISS Global. The deal is worth 200 crore.

ISS Hicare is currently India's second largest pest control services provider, according to IVFA. It operates across 27 cities and serves more than 100,000 residential customers and 10,000 commercial customers.

The Indian pest control industry is estimated at $166 million (around 1,038 crore) in size and growing at around 15 per cent annually, driven by the countrys large and growing urban population, rising income levels and improving awareness of health and safety issues.

The market has historically been serviced either by do-it-yourself products, such as insecticide sprays, or the unorganised local players. With only two national players, Pest Control of India and Hicare in the market, two multinationals Rentokil and SIS-Terminix are also present.

Hicare was founded by Godrej Industries and Mahendran Holdings in 2004, where Mahendran was a co-promoter along with Godrej Industries, to provide pest control services. Mahendran built up the business when he was a managing director at Godrej. The company was later acquired by Danish multinational ISS Global in 2009.

IVFA, that manages over $1.2 billion in assets, has joined hands with Mahendran through GoodLife Products Ltd, a group company of Mahendran Holdings Ltd.

Vikram Nirula and Haresh Chawla from IVFA have joined as directors on the board of the company and Mahendran will be Chairman. The private equity firm will support the expansion of Hicares branch network and the introduction of new services and products.

(This article was published on February 6, 2014)

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IVFA to acquire pest control firm