Strides Arcolab Limited Ponies Up $299.90 Million for Aspen Pharmacare's Drug Brands
May 21, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Indian drugmaker Strides Arcolab Limited is widening its portfolio of generics, saying Thursday it will buy Aspen Pharmacare Ltd.’s Australian unit for around $300 million.
Strides said the deal is slated to close by the end of the second quarter. Aspen is a South African pharmaceutical company and the sale today pushes Strides and its group entities into the top three generic pharmaceutical suppliers in Australia—and one of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in that country.
The deal will also allow Strides access to some branded drugs, as part of a larger package that snaps up a business that brought in A$120 million in 2014. The new unit will be merged with its Arrrow Pharmaceuticals brand and will be positioned to provide both prescription and non-prescription products. Arrow will now be led by Dennis Bastas, the previous founder and chief executive of Ascent Pharmahealth.
“The Australian generic pharmaceutical market has always been very successful for Strides,” said Arun Kumar, founder and group chief executive of Strides Arcolab. “The Aspen Australian generic pharmaceutical assets are a valuable and unique platform for Strides to re-build its business in Australia. Strong local management, a market leading product portfolio supported by our in-house cost effective manufacturing, will be the key ingredients of our strategy for Australia.”
In addition, Strides will get a product pipeline that was under development by Aspen and includes a number of major product launches in the next six months.
The company said it would pay for the deal via internal accruals and debt financing and expects it to be accretive to earnings immediately. Strides has eight manufacturing facilities and a presence in more than 75 countries in developed and emerging markets.
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