Aurobindo Pharma Limited announced on Saturday that its step-down subsidiary, Agile Pharma B V (Netherlands), signed a definitive agreement to acquire Canadian pharmaceuticals company Apotex International Inc’s commercial operations and certain supporting infrastructure in five European countries for €74 million in an all-cash deal. The company expects to close the deal in three-six months.
The acquisition is in line with Aurobindo’s strategy to strengthen and expand in Eastern Europe, the company said. The acquisition includes a portfolio of over 200 prescription drugs and 88 OTC products and an additional pipeline of over 20 products, which are expected to be launched over the next two years. There is also a manufacturing facility in Leiden in the Netherlands, with capabilities across manufacturing and packaging and a capacity of 1.8 billion tablets per annum.
With the acquisition of Apotex Inc’s commercial operations in the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Czech Republic and Belgium, Aurobindo will be able to improve its market access, besides adding a quarter of its existing European revenues in the form of Apotex’s sales. While Aurobindo had sales in Europe of €577 million, the net sales for the acquired business is around €133 million in the year ending March 2018.
V Muralidharan, senior vice-president of European operations for Aurobindo, said, “This acquisition is a key step towards our goal of becoming one of the leading generics companies in Europe.”
Jefferies International Limited acted as the sole financial adviser and Herbert Smith Freehills LLP was the legal counsel to Aurobindo. Ernst & Young, India, provided financial due diligence services.
Aurobindo has been expanding its European footprint since 2006, both organically and via acquisitions across several key markets, most notable among being the acquisitions of Actavis’s commercial operations in seven Western European countries in 2014 and Generis Farmaceutica in Portugal in 2017. Its current European business spans across nine countries, including the UK, France and Belgium, and involves government business, tender generics, branded generics and hospital generics segments.
“In Poland, Aurobindo will add significant sales based on the established brand name APO as well as a dedicated sales force covering physicians and the pharmacy network. In Poland and Czech Republic, Aurobindo will become one of top 15 generics companies in each country. In Netherlands, the acquisition will lead to Aurobindo becoming a leading OTC company by volume, in Spain it will strengthen the company’s position in the generics market and in Belgium, the acquisition will provide Aurobindo with an entry into the retail generics space, where it will become a top 5 player,” the company said.
Source: Business-Standard