Carlyle divests Qualicaps to Mitsubishi Chem for $655 million

Global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group says it has agreed to sell its entire shareholdings in Japanese capsule manufacturer Qualicaps to Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, a Japanese company mainly operating in the leading chemical and health care businesses. The transaction, valued at 55.8 billion yen ($655 million), is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in March 2013.

Formed in 1965, Qualicaps was acquired by Carlyle Group in 2005. For fiscal year 2011, the company recorded operating income of 3 billion yen and sales of 17.6 billion yen. Qualicaps makes capsules for pharmaceutical as well as health and nutrition products. Its products include hard gelatin capsules, non-gelatin hypromellose capsules and pharmaceutical processing equipment. The company has operations in Japan, the USA and Europe, with overseas sales accounting for 64 percent of consolidated revenue in 2011.

The global capsule market has an estimated market size of about 100 billion yen, according to a report by RTT News. Mitsubishi Chemical noted that Qualicaps has a market share of more than 20% in the pharma-grade capsules segment, which accounts for the majority of the total capsule market, RTT said.