Motilal Oswal Private Equity acquires minority stake in India-based Dairy Classic Ice Creams

India-based Motilal Oswal Private Equity (MOPE) has invested Rs1.1bn ($164m) in Dairy Classic Ice Creams to acquire a minority stake.

The investment was made by MOPE-managed India Business Excellence Fund.

Bengaluru-based Dairy Classic Ice Creams manufactures and sells ice creams and frozen desserts.

The capital will be utilised by Dairy Classic Ice Creams to boost its capacity in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, as well as its distribution network and brand, reported Livemint.com.

This is the first round of private equity investment in the ice cream company.

Established in 2003, Dairy Classic Ice Creams has a supply chain network of 15,000 retailers and a manufacturing facility in Bengaluru.

Diary Classic directors N Jagannath and A Balaraju were quoted by Livemint.com as saying: “Partnering with MOPE will help Dairy Day to achieve its multi-pronged goals of becoming one of the leading ice cream brands in southern India while continually improving its market share.

“We strongly believe that MOPE is one of the premier private equity fund managers in India. Their experience of managing several companies across sectors will bring a lot of value to us as we endeavour to build an excellent organisation.”

Ernst & Young served as the sole financial adviser to Diary Classic in this deal.

MOPE managing director and CEO Vishal Tulsyan was quoted by Thehindubusinessline.com as saying: “We believe that the company is well-positioned to benefit from increasing acceptance of ice cream as dessert, heightened brand awareness, higher spending capabilities and improving refrigeration infrastructure.

“Dairy Classic is a fairly young company and the management has shown exceptional execution capabilities by scaling the brand where it is today, in such a short time span.”