Advent takes over LaborMed Pharma for €123 mln

The acquisition is due to be approved by the Competition Council.

Advent is to pay some €114 mln in cash, at the closing of the deal, which will take place soon, sources said. The remaining amount are the pharmaceutical company’s debts, also taken on by the investment fund.

Prior to the takeover, LaborMed Pharma had five shareholders. Three of them, business people Marilena Jiquidi, Ionel Lovin and Iliana Ghita, each with a 26.8 percent share, are to cash in some €30 mln each. Other shareholders were Bulgarian citizen Venelin Stoyanov, with 15 percent, and local businessman Constantin Mircioiu, with 6.6 percent.

LaborMed and Advent representatives have declined to comment on the deal. Israeli company Teva and investment fund Global Finance were also on the short list for the acquisition of the pharma company.

Through this transaction, Advent International will re-entering the pharma industry. It once owned Terapia Cluj drug producer, which it sold to Indian company Ranbaxy for €277 mln in 2006. Advent paid €39.8 mln in 2003 for Terapia.

Local paint producer Dufa Deutek and construction material producer Ceramica Iasi are also part of Advent’s portfolio.

The fund’s new acquisition, LaborMed Pharma, was founded in 1991 by a group of local pharmacists. It is among the 20 largest local pharmaceutical producers in terms of sales volume, with a 1.6 percent market share. The Romanian pharmaceuticals market is estimated to be worth some €1.8 billion.