| Cohance Lifesciences Limited | ||||||
| Long-term rating continues on 'Watch Positive'; Short-term rating reaffirmed | ||||||
| Rating Action | ||||||
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| Note: None of the Directors on Crisil Ratings Limited’s Board are members of rating committee and thus do not participate in discussion or assignment of any ratings. The Board of Directors also does not discuss any ratings at its meetings. | ||||||
| 1 crore = 10 million | ||||||
| Refer to Annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities |
Detailed Rationale Crisil Ratings has continued its rating on the long-term bank facilities of Cohance Lifesciences Limited (CLL) (erstwhile Suven Pharmaceuticals Ltd (SPL)) on 'Rating Watch with Positive Implications’; the short-term rating has been reaffirmed at 'Crisil A1+'.
Crisil Ratings had placed the long-term rating on watch positive on Feb 29th, 2024, post the announcement regarding the scheme of amalgamation of CLL into and with SPL which was subject to receipt of necessary approvals.
Crisil has taken note of the completion of the amalgamation process with the receipt of necessary approvals and the merger took effect from May 1, 2025 and the name of the combined entity has been changed to CLL.
Crisil Ratings also has noted the acquisition of 56% of share capital of NJ Bio Inc on Dec 20, 2024 for a consideration of Rs. 547.96 crores and gained control of NJ Bio Inc as a subsidiary. The amount was paid off from the cash reserves and no debt was availed for the same. The cash position stood at Rs. 282 crores as on Dec 31, 2024.
Crisil is in the process of evaluating the impact of the acquisitions and the amalgamation which is completed on the overall business and financial performance of the company. Management is in the process of sharing the requisite information sought/ meeting for the same. The ratings shall be removed from watch and a final rating action will be taken once the assessment is completed.
The ratings continue to reflect Suven group’s established market position, and its strong financial profile. These strengths are partially offset by working capital intensive operations and exposure to customer concentration risk. |
Analytical Approach For arriving at the ratings, Crisil Ratings has combined the business and financial risk profiles of CLL with its subsidiaries; Suven Pharma Inc, Sapala Organics Pvt Ltd & NJ Bio Inc. This is because these companies, collectively referred to as the Suven group, have a common management team, are in similar lines of business, and have operational linkages and fungible cash flow. Crisil shall take a view on the combined entity post amalgamation post the detailed assessment.
Please refer Annexure - List of Entities Consolidated, which captures the list of entities considered and their analytical treatment of consolidation. |
Key Rating Drivers & Detailed Description Strengths:
Weaknesses:
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Liquidity: Strong Net cash accruals estimated to be above Rs. 300 crs in fiscal 2025 against which the company doesn’t have any term debt obligations. Liquidity is further supported by free cash and liquid investments of Rs. 282 crores as on Dec 31, 2024. These are expected to continue to increase over the medium term with significant accretion to reserves. |
Rating sensitivity factors Upward factors:
Downward factors:
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About the Group Incorporated in November 2018, CLL is a biopharmaceutical company specialising in New Chemical Entity (NCE)-based CRAMS for global life science companies. CLL is among the top five players in India who supply high-end intermediaries to innovators. The company got listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange on March 09, 2020. The management of the group have recently been changed with acquisition of significant stake of 50.10% of SPL by Berhyanda Limited (fully owned subsidiary of Advent International) as part of its strategy to build a leading end-to-end Contract Development & manufacturing Organization (CDMO) and merchant API player servicing the pharma and specialty chemical markets
Suven Pharma Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CLL. It is an SPV for undertaking various business opportunities in the Pharma Industry. Suven Pharma Inc. has 7% stake in Raisin Aggregator LP, which is a New Jersey, USA based pharmaceutical company.
Sapala Organics Private Limited is a Hyderabad based CDMO founded in 2005 by Dr P Yella Reddy who has extensive experience in nucleic acid chemistry. On July 12, 2024; SPL has acquired 51% of the share capital of SOPL on a fully diluted basis.
NJ Bio Inc is an Antibody Drug Conjugate focused CRDMO and one of the leading global players with end-to-end capabilities across payload-linker synthesis, bioconjugation and analytical services. SPL has acquired 56% of the share capital of NJ Bio Inc on 20 December 2024 for a consideration of Rs. 547.96 crore and gained control of NJ Bio Inc as a subsidiary.
For the nine months ended Dec 31, 2024, group reported consolidated revenue and PAT of Rs. 795.56 crores and Rs. 226.04 crores as against Rs. 798.42 cr and Rs. 246.91 crores in the corresponding period during previous fiscal. |
Key Financial Indicators
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Any other information: Not applicable |
Note on complexity levels of the rated instrument: |
Annexure - Details of Instrument(s)
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Annexure - List of Entities Consolidated
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| Annexure - Rating History for last 3 Years | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| All amounts are in Rs.Cr. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Annexure - Details of Bank Lenders & Facilities | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Criteria Details
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