Aurobindo Pharma To Acquire Apotex’s Operations In Five European Countries
The transaction is valued at €74 million (approximately Rs 600 crore).
Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. inked a pact to acquire Apotex International Inc.'s businesses in five European countries for 74 million euros (Rs 593 crore).
The Hyderabad-based company will acquire Apotex's commercial operations and supporting infrastructure in Poland, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Spain, and Belgium, it said in a stock exchange notification.
The acquisition will extend and diversify Aurobindo’s European product portfolio by adding over 200 generics and more than 80 over-the-counter products that had total sales of 133 million euros in the year ending March 2018.Aurobindo Pharma Statement
Although some of these businesses are currently loss-making, Aurobindo expects "them to return to profitability when combined with its vertically integrated platform and existing commercial infrastructure".
The drugmaker will also get access to a pipeline of over 20 products which are expected to be launched over the next two years. The deal is conditional on clearances from Dutch and Polish competition authorities.
European Ambitions
This acquisition is a key step towards our goal of becoming one of the leading generics companies in Europe, Senior Vice President for European Operations V Muralidharan said. “Acquiring Apotex’s businesses in these key five countries will allow us to expand our product offering further, including OTC medicines in the Netherlands, and considerably strengthen our position in Eastern Europe,” he added.
Aurobindo currently has a presence in nine European countries - Portugal, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, UK, and Romania. Its clocked sales of 577 million euros from Europe in the last financial year.
Aurobindo's European Acquisitions
- 2014: Actavis’ commercial operations in seven Western European countries
- 2017: Generis Farmaceutica in Portugal
Shares of Aurobindo Pharma ended lower for the fourth straight session on Friday, its longest losing streak in over a month. The stock has dropped 12.5 percent in 2018, compared to the 4.7 percent drop in the NSE Nifty Pharma Index.