Andreae-Noris Zahn AG (ANZAG), one of the top three European pharmacy retailers, is negotiating a takeover of the Romanian pharmacy chain Dona, one of the top five local pharmacy networks.
Market sources say the two parties have already signed a pre-contract, but ANZAG spokesman, Thomas Graf, declined to comment on the issue. “We are not making comments on speculations regarding our company,” he told Business Standard. Dona officials would not confirm the information either. Ovidiu Constantin, Executive Director of SiepcoFar, the company that owns the Dona pharmacy network, said there were discussions with the German retailer, but these are not yet finalized. “We have only had preliminary discussions. We are open to any business opportunities - partnership, partial sale of the company, share capital increase,” Constantin said. He added discussions can take from six months to two years.
Romanian individual shareholders control 98 percent of SiepcoFar. According to an evaluation made by SiepcoFar at the beginning of 2007, Dona is worth over €30 million. Net sales for 2006 amounted to €28.4 million and forecasts for 2007 are about €41 million. However, Constantin said that net sale estimates were recently re-evaluated at €45 million, due to the network’s large expansion and the increase in Romanian purchasing power. The value of an eventual sale could be 80-110 percent of the pharmacy chain’s net sales, Constantin added. Dona currently has 68 pharmacies and is expected to be extended to more than 125 pharmacies by 2009.
Constantin said that buying 15-25 pharmacies annually to increase the network is not an aggressive policy. Some €4-5 million will be invested in new pharmacies this year, according to the company’s budget. “Aggressive development would be investing €10-15 millions all at once,” according to SiepcoFar’s Executive Director.
Last year ANZAG bought 60 percent of Farmexpert, the third-largest drug distributor on the Romanian market. The company is owned by businessman Eugen Banciu, who is also a SiepcoFar shareholder. With net sales exceeding €3.4 million and some 2,200 employees, ANZAG has one of the largest distribution networks in the European pharmaceutical products field.
