The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said on Thursday it has approved the merger of two subsidiaries of Biocon Ltd. and Serum Institute Life Sciences that was announced by the companies last September.
CCI said the merger of Covidshield Technologies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Serum Institute Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd. (SILS) with Biocon Biologics Ltd., an arm of Biocon Ltd. was cleared. This is part of an acquisition of about 15% equity shareholding in Biocon Biologics by Serum Institute Life Sciences.
As part of the deal announced by Biocon Biologics and Serum Institute Life Sciences last year, the former will offer about 15% stake to the latter at a post-money valuation of $4.9 billion, for which it will get committed access to 100 million doses of vaccines a year for 15 years. This would be mainly from Serum Institute’s upcoming vaccine facility in Pune with commercialidation rights of the SILS vaccine portfolio (including COVID-19 vaccines) for global markets, Biocon Bilogics had announced last September.
The acquirer, Covidshield Technologies, is a subsidiary of Serum Institute of India Private Limited and was established as a company for further development and commercialisation of vaccines and therapies against Covid-19. It also had plans to develop vaccines against other infectious diseases. At present, the acquirer is in the process of setting up its own manufacturing facility, CCI said in its statement.
Covidshield Technologies will be merged into the target– Biocon Biologics Ltd.–pursuant to the transaction. It was incorporated to engage in the business of marketing, selling and distributing vaccines, drugs and other pharmaceutical products, CCI said. The Biocon subsidiary offers treatment for chronic and acute diseases such as diabetes, oncology, nephrology, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. It also has research and development centres in Bengaluru and Chennai, CCI said. The company also has manufacturing facilities in Bengaluru and Malaysia for monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins and insulins.
In a separate statement, CCI said it has approved Sanoti Properties LLP’s acquisition of shareholding in Magma HDI General Insurance Co. Ltd. The approval is granted under a section in the Competition Act which is used when the regulator is of the view that the transaction does not, or is not likely to, have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in the market.
Source: Mint