Exclusive: Infra.Market in late-stage talks to acquire Halonix

This year has turned out to be eventful for the online procurement platform Infra.Market. While the company turned unicorn in February with a $100 million round led by Tiger Global, it’s in late-stage talks to raise another round at over $4 billion. Flushed with cash, it’s also in the market for acquisitions.

Infra.Market had already acquired RDC Concrete for $100 million in September. The company is now in talks to acquire electrical company Halonix, said three people aware of the details of the conversations.

“Talks have been on between the two firms for the past couple of months and reached into advanced stage. Infra.Market has also given a term sheet to Halonix,” said one of the people requesting anonymity.

According to the people cited above, the size of the deal will be worth anywhere between $90-100 million or Rs 675-750 crore.

Halonix is an electrical company that manufactures LED, luminaires, home decorative, commercial and industrial lighting and street lighting along with halogens and high-intensity discharge lamps, fans and IoT-enabled devices. It was bought by Hong Kong-based NewQuest Capital from Actis in 2016.

Queries sent to Halonix, Infra.market and NewQuest Capital didn’t elicit any immediate responses. We will update the story as and when they respond.

Unlike most of the unicorn herd this year, Infra.Market is a profitable one with a sizable income. For the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2021, it generated revenues of Rs 1,243 crore as compared to Rs 351 crore in FY20.

Despite Covid-led disruption in FY21, Mumbai-based Infra.Market managed to grow its profits over four folds to around Rs 36 crore. The company had already raised $200 million across two financing rounds in 2021 and is in talks to corner another round at over $4 billion in valuation.

Halonix’s scale has been almost flat since FY19 when it recorded Rs 404 crore in operating income. While its income during FY20 stood at Rs 445.60 crore, it recorded a 2% decrease in operating income to Rs 436.5 crore in FY21. The Noida based electrical manufacturing company is controlled by Mauritius  based private equity firm  NewQuest Capital Partners which holds 99.42% stake in Halonix. 

According to its annual financial statements with RoC, the company’s profit also reduced 8% to Rs 12.25 crore in FY21 from Rs 13.33 crore in FY20. However, Halonix improved its operating efficiency and its cash flow from operations also improved from outflows of Rs 4 crore in FY20 to cash inflows of Rs 32.2 crore during FY21.