Mumbai, Dec. 29: Matrix Laboratories and its promoters are selling a 27 per cent stake to Newbridge Capital and another foreign investor in a preferential allotment worth Rs 337.5 crore. The price will be Rs 1,500 apiece.

The Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical major informed exchanges today that it will be issuing 22.50 lakh shares on a preferential basis to Newbridge and the investor.

Newbridge and the other investor will approach the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to obtain its approval for purchase of 18 lakh shares from the promoters through a secondary sale.

Speaking to The Telegraph, a senior Matrix official said the purchase of the shares pursuant to the FIPB approval could be an off-market transaction.

The official added that the promoters’ stake in Matrix will come down to 37 per cent from the existing 50 per cent after the processes are completed.

The consideration emerging from the preferential allotment will be used to retire long debts, setting up of an research and development centre and meeting long-term working capital needs for Matrix’s anti-HIV business.

“It will also be used for general corporate purposes and possible future acquisitions’’, he said.

He added that there are no plans to raise any more money at this stage, as this amount will be adequate for the next two-to-three years. Through the stake sale, Matrix will raise an equity capital of Rs 14.55 crore.

Matrix manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates. In the first half of this year, the company posted a net profit of Rs 61.78 crore on sales of Rs 257.5 crore. Of these, close to 56 per cent came from exports, particularly from the regulated markets.

The company’s products include Citalopram, which contributes around 28 per cent of its topline, the share of anti-AIDS drugs in its portfolio is also growing. Matrix has around 30 products in the pipeline for launch in the markets of the US, Canada and Europe after their patent expiry.

Recently, the company announced the setting up of two joint ventures, one in Ireland called CEM Pharma Life Sciences and the other in India called Medikon Galenicals.