The Blackstone Group, an American private equity firm, has purchased a 33 per cent stake in Indian fragrance & flavour specialist SH Kelkar & Co (SHK) for Rs 243 crore.

The transaction valued Mumbai-based SHK at 736 crore, almost 100 crore higher than the company’s annual sales in the previous year.

SHK is 65 per cent owned by the Vaze family, which had acquired the stake from co-founder Kelkar family around two years back. The Vaze family will continue to hold a 65 per cent stake, while another 2 per cent will now be in the hands of a few minority investors.

Akhil Gupta, senior MD & chairman of Blackstone India, said, “We foresee a huge growth opportunity for SHK, both in the domestic and other emerging markets.”

Mr. Gupta added that they foresee robust demand for the company’s products in future in India, Africa and South-east Asia.

The transaction once again demonstrated foreign equity firms’ interest in India fragrance companies. In March last year, Standard Chartered PE invested Rs 85 crore in another Mumbai-based flavours and aroma chemicals maker called Privi Organics.

SHK is India’s largest fragrance, flavours and aroma chemicals producer. It also operates in some foreign countries like Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.