Aurobindo Pharma to partner with drug park

AP bulk drug infra to have 51% stake in the business

Aurobindo Pharma is said to be aggressively pushing to becoming the private partner of the proposed greenfield bulk drug park of the Andhra Pradesh government in East Godavari district.

The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation’s whollyowned AP Bulk Drug Infrastructure Corporation will have 51 per cent stake in the proposed park and remaining will be left to the private player who will design, build, finance, develop and operate the park.

The catch here is that the State cabinet had decided the location of the bulk drug park as East Godavari district and later imposed a pre-condition that the private partner should offer 2,000 acres as equity besides financing the project.

Sources told Deccan Chronicle that Aurobindo has been in talks with the GMR group which has a land bank of about 7,000 acres for its proposed Special Economic Zone and deep water port projects near Kakinada, for the required extent of land. People at the highest levels of the state government, who are very keen to get the mega bulk drug park to the state, facilitated the discussions among the top echelons of the two

groups, sources added.

The Centre announced funding for three bulk drug parks under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme and offered a grant of about `1,000 crore for developing infrastructure.

Sources said various

options are being worked out between the two groups including the GMR leasing out 2,000 acres to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) through Aurobindo or the latter purchasing land outright and offering it to the SPV as its equity. “Offering

2,000 acres of land parcel free from encumbrances is a challenge and Aurobindo alone might be in a position to do that,” sources pointed out. The state government also decided to engage the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology as knowledge partner.