Tiger Pacific Capital, a private equity fund, has acquired a stake of nearly 4 percent in B9 Beverages, the parent company of Bira 91 beer and The Beer Cafe chain. The investment has been made for $25 million.
Apart from expanding the base with this acquisition, this is also the company’s move towards an entry into the stock market, as per reports.
Ankur Jain, chief executive of B9 Beverages, told the Economic Times that their cap table is special since it has blue-chip financial sponsors and strategic partners located in New York, India, and Japan. He said that this enables the company to expand into wider geographies.
This acquisition by Tiger Pacific Capital comes a few weeks after Japanese beverage group Kirin Holdings also invested $25 million in B9 Beverages. Kirin Holdings acquired a minority stake in the company through the purchase of fresh shares.
Close to $130 million has been invested by various companies in B9 Beverages over the last one and a half years. This indicates the company’s growing importance. Similarly, the Indian beer market as a whole has been growing. Market research company IMARC says that the market is supposed to reach “Rs 781.2 billion by 2032.”
