India: Miadiamante Foods & Beverages acquires majority stake in craft brewer Independence Brewing Company

Miadiamante Foods & Beverages, a Nashik-based company, has picked up a majority stake in microbrewery company, Independence Brewing Company (IBC), one of the largest and oldest microbreweries in India. This is among a few transactions in the F&B space in India since the lockdown was announced, the Financial Express reported on July 10.

Miadiamante, promoted by Krishen Lal Khanna and Anirudh Khanna, acquired a majority stake in IBC from Indus Brew LLC, a US-based entity. Co-founded by Shailendra Bist, majority of the stake in IBC was previously owned by Indus Brew LLC, Greg Koch (co-founder, Stone Brewing Company) and Avanish Vellanki (co-founder & CEO, Rain Therapeutics).

IBC is widely present across Mumbai and Pune through its outlets and beer distribution business and its revenues were at around $2 million in FY20.

While Miadiamante has purchased a majority stake, founder Bist will continue to own a minority stake and invest efforts in growing the business further. What was previously a US-based LLC has now been converted into an Indian family-owned company, which will run the business.

Mihir Mehta, SVP, Ashika Capital, which facilitated the deal, said the ongoing pandemic had affected the economy drastically with the F&B sector being one of the worst-affected. “Firms should not put a pause to their funding plans due to the current scenario and it may be a good entry or exit point for a lot of businesses as well as investors,” he said.