The beginning of 2009 was marked for the Pharma world by a chain of events that shook the generic galaxy to its foundations. At the origin of these events a tragic fact, the suicide, which had wide coverage in the media, of the German billionaire Adolf Merckle. The family of the suicidal billionaire, in fact, holds (about to sell it) control, through the Vem holding, of various companies including the multinational of generic drugs Ratiopharm. The fact gave the green light to rumors about possible buyers, with the Israeli Teva in pole position. But the announcement of the possible sale of Actavis, an Icelandic company among the leading producers of non-branded drugs, also added excitement to the world of unbranded drugs.
Overwhelmed by debts and stock markets, as reported by Il Sole 24 Ore, the German billionaire, the fifth richest man in Germany, was involved in an unfortunate operation on the Volkswagen stock, losing around 400 million euros. But the debts of the family holding would be even higher. The consequence is that the family is forced to sell Ratiopharm, the jewel of the group and in this perspective, after weeks of negotiations, it seems to have reached an agreement with the creditor banks which, on the basis of the agreement, will grant a bridging loan of 400 million euros. According to market estimates reported by the Wall Street Journal, the transaction could yield between 3 and 5 billion dollars. The company has particular prominence in the generics galaxy, the fourth largest producer in the world with branches in 25 countries and a turnover of over 1.7 billion euros, with over five thousand employees in Germany and abroad. But the Icelandic Actavis is not doing much better, which in turn is destined to end up "on the square". In fact, according to Reuters, Novator, the private-equity company that controls the company, one of the world's leading producers of generic medicines, could decide to sell it. In this case, no tragic fact at the origin of the event, but, according to Reuters, the crisis of the Icelandic bank Landsbanki of which Thor Bjorgolfsson, CEO of Actavis, is one of the main shareholders. Moreover, rumors about the poor health of the company have been circulating for some time and the acquisition of 80% by private-equity had left the company with 4 billion in debt. The deal could be worth $6 billion or more.
We are therefore talking about considerable business that could attract quite a few buyers. The first to be called into question, since they are two generic companies, was the Israeli Teva which appears to be in good health. But Bill Marth, CEO of the group for North America hastened to deny it, speaking at a meeting of Goldman Sachs. In fact, new maxi-acquisitions are unlikely, explained Marth, according to whom for the moment the priority is the integration of rival Barr Pharmaceuticals, acquired in 2008 for 7.46 billion dollars. At most, Marth said, the group could evaluate the acquisition of parts of companies. On the Actavis front, however, among the possible buyers, pharmaceutical multinationals of the caliber of Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline were also mentioned. In fact, Actavis boasts a particularly strong presence in emerging markets such as Eastern Europe and some Asian regions. But for now they are only rumors and no comment reigns from the spokesmen of the companies for sale. Looking forward to the next developments.
Source: www.pharmamarketing.it
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