Indian pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy acquired drugmaker Terapia Cluj-Napoca for 325 million dollars (approximately 270m euros). The seller is investment fund Advent International, which bought Terapia for some 45 million dollars two years ago.
The acquisition is the biggest transaction on the Romanian pharmaceutical market in terms of value and comes shortly after the Icelandic group Actavis announced it had bought local oncologic drug manufacturer Sindan Bucharest for 150 million euros.
Ranbaxy will own 96.7% in Terapia. Ranbaxy is the biggest producer of generics and active ingredients in India and one of the leading manufacturers of generic drugs in the world with global sales standing at 1.17 billion dollars last year.
According to Ranbaxy officials, the price paid for the takeover of the Romanian pharmaceutical company is 11.6 times the value of Terapia''s operating income for the last 12 months. The company posted sales of some 80 million dollars (67 million euros) last year, which includes its distribution operations.
"We are interested in further acquisitions on the Romanian market, but I cannot make any more statements in this regard for the time being," stated Yogish Agarwal, country manager of Ranbaxy.
Terapia ranks eighth among pharmaceutical companies that were active on the Romanian market at the end of last year, with a 3.4% market share, according to data provided by market research company Cegedim.
"We intend to buy 100% in Terapia, but we need find the remaining 3%," Agarwal said.
Ranbaxy''s consultant in this deal was the corporate finance division of ABN Amro, while Advent International''s adviser was Merrill Lynch.
"The fast growth of pace in the domestic market is doubled by the fact that Romania is the second-largest market in terms of number of inhabitants in Central and Eastern Europe. Besides, Romania will join the European Union on January 1, 2007, providing new opportunities for growth," Ranbaxy officials explained.
The consolidated turnover of the group comprised of Ranbaxy and Terapia will reach 130 million euros on the Romanian market this year, while the number of employees will exceed 1,000 people, according to Ranbaxy''s estimates. The Ranbaxy official added that the company was aiming for the top spot on the Romanian pharmaceutical market in the long run.
According to Ranbaxy''s country manager, the Indian company will retain the Terapia brand.
Ranbaxy has not had a strong presence on the Romanian market until now. According to Cegedim data quoted by Mediafax, Ranbaxy Romania ranked 19th among the generics producers, with 1.6% of the domestic market.
Company''s sales reached approximately 2 million euros from July through September 2005, an increase of 108% compared to figures posted for the same period of time in 2004.
Ranbaxy is present on 125 markets in the world and has production facilities in 7 countries.
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