The Indian firms Ranbaxy Laboratories and Lupin Laboratories, as well as two other European pharmaceutical producers, are interested in the acquisition of the firm Sindan, specialising in the production of oncological products, with the value of the deal put at more than $150m (125 million euros), according to the Indian press.
Sources close to the discussions specified that a contract was likely to be signed in the next two months. Sindan representatives declined to comment on the information.
The oncological products manufacturer would be the second possible Romanian target for Ranbaxy Laboratories, considering that, late last year, market sources announced the biggest Indian producer of generics and active ingredients planned to take over the pharmaceutical company Terapia.
"We won''t comment on speculations. As part of our policy, we intend to develop our business on foreign markets," a Ranbaxy spokesperson stated in relation to the potential acquisitions.
According to the market research firm Cegedim, at the end of the third quarter of last year, Ranbaxy Romania ranked 19th in the listing of generics producers, with a 1.6% share of the domestic generics market.
The company''s sales between July-September 2005 reached around two million euros, 108% higher as compared with the corresponding period of 2004.
The company''s main objective until 2007 is, according to the general manager, Yogish Agarwal, to gain a position among the top 20 drug producers and importers on the domestic market.
Ranbaxy Laboratories is present in over 100 states and its sales in the first nine months of last year amounted to 868 million dollars.
In turn, the Indian firm Lupin Laboratories, which is not yet present on the Romanian market, appears to be an aggressive bidder for Sindan, given that it has funds of around 100 million dollars available after it launched a bond issue in December 2005.
Lupin currently owns five production units in India and has sales offices in the US, Great Britain, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Thailand and India. During the 2004-2005 financial year, the company logged sales worth 12.1 billion rupees (225.8 million euros), with half of this sum being generated on foreign markets.
In September 2005, Sindan came out 16th in the ranking of companies with the highest sales of pharmaceutical products on the Romanian market, with a 1.9% market share between October 2004 and September 2005.
During this period it registered revenues worth 85.4 million RON, according to statistics from Cegedim.
The Sindan plant was set up in 1991, based around the research and production section of the Bucharest Oncological Institute. In 2000, Sindan received Good Manufacturing Practice quality certificates for all its production facilities.
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