Terapia takeover: following the money

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Dutch Bank for Development (FMO) are, together with an investment fund held by US-based company Advent International, co-investors in the takeover of Romanian drugmaker Terapia Cluj-Napoca.

“We will work with environment experts of the two banks for the implementation of an environment regeneration plan that will benefit the company, as well as the entire community,” says Emma Popa-Radu, a representative of Advent International in Romania.

EBRD is already present, indirectly, in the Romanian pharmaceutical industry, being the main financing institution within the investment vehicle Venoma Holdings, the majority shareholder in Sicomed Bucharest, the largest domestic drugmaker.

The takeover transaction, worth almost 40 million dollars, was financed through banking credits granted by Standard Bank London Limited and Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank.

Advent was counseled for the transaction by Cameron McKenna law firm (legal consultancy) and Ernst&Young (accounting).

“Terapia is a powerful, well-managed, profitable company, benefiting from a solid development strategy. Our growth plans are ambitious, targeting the transformation of Terapia into the dominant domestic producer within the pharmaceutical industry, with a rich portfolio of high value-added products and highly-developed sales and marketing operations,” stated Joanna James, managing director with Advent International Central and Eastern Europe.

At this point, Terapia is the fifth-largest player on the Romanian drug market, after GlaxoSmithKline (Great Britain), Novartis (Switzerland), Pfizer (US) and Sicomed Bucharest.

The company’s takeover by the consortium led by Advent was finalised this month, following the closing of the public takeover bid through which about 90.7% of the company’s shares were acquired on the stock exchange.

Advent officials say that, in the following period, the management team will be “supported and consolidated.”

There will also be changes within the board, which will include “independent members with vast experience in the pharmaceutical industry from Central and Eastern Europe.”

At the same time, over the following months, procedures aimed at delisting the company from the stock exchange will also be launched.

Advent International is one of the world’s biggest managers of private equity investment funds.

So far, beside Terapia, the US group has invested in two other Romanian companies, becoming the main shareholder in Euromedia (outdoor advertising) and Mobifon (telecommunications).

Advent is one of the largest investors in the international drug industry, having held stakes, through the funds it manages, in over 80 pharmaceutical companies over the last 16 years.
laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro