Antibiotice more interesting to foreign investors

Antibiotice Iasi, the only Romanian drug maker still owned by the state, is becoming more and more interesting to the foreign investors. This comes after three of the domestic players, Sicomed, Sindan and Terapia, have been taken over in the last six months in deals totalling over 500 million euros.

Antibiotice has a market capitalisation standing at 181 million euros.

Last year, the company posted turnover worth 46 million euros. At the same time, the company”s net income amounted to around 5.6 million euros, while the operating income reached 7.3 million euros.

The acquisition of Antibiotice is likely to be the last opportunity foreign players have of entering the Romanian market, given that the already tight competition makes organic growth quite difficult.

At present, more than half of stock of Iasi-based drug maker (53%) is held by AVAS, with other important shareholders including the Broadhurst investment fund and SIF Oltenia.

The latest information, quoted by Mediafax, indicated the list of companies planning to acquire Antibiotice supposedly included Montero pharmaceutical group and the Hungarian-owned Ph?nix Laboratorium. Both were contacted by ZF, but Montero officials did not care to comment and Ph?nix Laboratorium officials did not provide any comment by the time the story was ready for print.

Other names such as Ozone producer or Canadian Acic Pharmaceuticals, were also quoted as being part of the list.

Though the former has since denied this information.

The race for the acquisition of Antibiotice Iasi is estimated to end this autumn. Antibiotice Iasi ranks ninth in the top of the most important players in Romania and its market share stands at 3.2%, in line with Cegedim data.

On the other hand, the company announced it planned to contract a loan worth around 2.5 million euros to finance a programme related to the modernisation of production facilities.

After the Czech Zentiva drug maker last autumn took control of Sicomed, with the Romanian company appraised at 200 million dollars, deals on the Romanian drug market boomed last week.

Sindan, a producer of oncologic drugs, was acquired by Actavis in a deal worth around 80 million euros.

The sale of Terapia was finalised during the same week, when Ranbaxy Indian company bought a 97% stake for 324 million dollars (270 million euros).

This has been the biggest deal sealed on the Romanian pharmaceutical market.

In 2005, the Romanian pharmaceutical market witnessed growth by 18%, in line with Cegedim data, while for this year most players are projecting growth by approximately 15%.

Drug consumption through pharmacies surged by about 25.3%, far higher than the rate of consumption through hospitals. ioana.david@zf.ro