(Reuters) Empreendimentos Pague Menos SA, Brazil’s No. 3 drugstore chain, agreed to sell a 17% stake to U.S. private-equity firm General Atlantic LLC for R$600m (US$150m), the latest deal involving an industry yet to feel the pinch of Brazil’s steepest recession in a quarter century.

In a Monday securities filing, Pague Menos said it will issue 440 million reais worth of new stock that will be subscribed by General Atlantic. General Atlantic will buy the equivalent of 160 million reais worth of shares in Pague Menos from the drugstore chain’s shareholders.

Fortaleza-based Pague Menos is controlled by the family of Francisco Deusmar Queiroz.

The company has 799 stores, based mainly in the northeastern region of Brazil, and made an attempt three years to go public. Adverse market conditions, however, derailed the plan.