MS Pharma, a fast growing pharmaceutical company based in Jordan and operating across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares in Genepharm, a leading European pharmaceutical company. Genepharm’s senior management will remain with the business and help guide the company through the next phase of its growth. The transaction is expected to close by the end of April.
Based in Greece, Genepharm develops, manufactures and
out-licenses high-value generic pharmaceutical products. The
Company retains a strong portfolio of products and an
extensive network of over 223 customers across 70 countries
worldwide. Genepharm combines strong R&D capabilities with
manufacturing capacity in conventional solids, sterile liquid
(oncology) and oncology oral solids. This acquisition will
expand MS Pharma’s geographic footprint, allowing the company
to reach more patients and customers in Europe and the rest of
the world. It will also complement MS Pharma’s existing
chronic disease portfolio with the addition of several
important products in cardiovascular, CNS and oncology.
The acquisition will allow Genepharm to access MS Pharma’s
manufacturing facilities and products portfolio and be part of
a group employing over 2000 employees. Genepharm’s portfolio
will be strengthened with sterile injectable products and
biotechnology candidates and plans are in place to
significantly increase the development resources in Athens.
Mr Ghiath Sukhtian, Chairman of MS Pharma said:
“This acquisition is highly complementary and synergistic to
our business, and marks an important milestone in our growth
plans. Genepharm’s management team has built a successful
business, and we look forward to supporting them in growing
the Genepharm business. We believe this acquisition will
enable Genepharm to offer a wider range of products and
technologies to its customers in Europe and around the world.”
Genepharm said:
“We are excited to be entering into a new phase of growth with
MS Pharma. This acquisition will help accelerate Genepharm’s
growth plans and will enable the company to offer a wider
range of products to its partners and customers”.
APP consulted and advised Cinven in the largest leveraged buyout of a German stock listed Company by private equity. After the deal was completed Claudio was asked to lead STADA AG for an interim period until a long term CEO would be found. During this year numerous changes were implemented and crucial strategic initiatives were started up:
* Domination and Profit/Loss Transfer Agreement: On February 2nd 2018 STADA’s shareholders voted with a majority of 99 percent for the conclusion of a “domination and profit and loss transfer agreement “ between the new controlling entity and STADA as dependent company. This was one of the most decisive and difficult moves in the take private process.
* New Strategy / new structure: STADA worked out a new 3 year strategy and re-organized top-management significantly. New market/channel entries, more complex products, several corporate culture initiatives and significant process re-engineering and saving initiatives were defined and are in implementation with clear results showing already for 2018
* Numerous pending legal cases between STADA and the previous management were cleared and closed. This happened in close cooperation with the general prosecutor and several law firms.
* The most important Asia hub Vietnam was newly structured and legally cleared from pending conflicts. The dysfunctional j.v. was re-established and a well structured separation process over 2 years agreed,- at the same time a complete new structure for Vietnam was defined and put to work.
* Several acquisitions and buyback programmes mainly in the brand segment were concluded ( Nizoral, Hedrin, ApoGo, Ladival)
* Biosimilar initiatives were intensified by buying a majority stake in the Erythropoietin Bioceuticals j.v. and signing or altering co-development agreements for Monoclonal Antibodies.
* The core processes of the company were re-engineered and strong saving potentials could be lifted especially in the technical and administrative areas of the company
* Strong improvement of time to market and successful Day1 launches of blockbuster drugs like Rosuvastatin or successful patent challenges and at-risk launches e.g. Pemetrexed, Ezetimibe-Simvastatine
* Stada’s public appearance (press etc) and corporate culture experienced strong positive change. Significant investments were made in talent development / retention / attraction programmes and strong focus was put on improvement of internal culture issues.
* STADA shows strong, double digit EBITDA growth rates for the first 6 months 2018. The strong EBITDA improvement is top line and cost driven. In revenues on a like-for like base (currency and portfolio adjusted) growth is beyond industry average.
As already reported, APP advised funds controlled by APAX an the acquisition of Inventfarma and Neuraxpharm - the 2 first companies forming Nupharm. Following the creation of Nupharm, Claudio Albrecht assumed the role of a non executive Director from which he stepped down assuming his role in Stada. To guarantee continuity, Peter Prock assumes this role starting September 2017. Nupharm, a pan-European leader in the treatment of diseases related to the central nervous system (“CNS”), is the strategic combination of five leading specialty pharmaceutical companies: Neuraxpharm (Germany and Poland), Qualigen (Spain), FB Health (Italy), as well as Laboratorios Lesvi and Inke (Spain). NuPharm develops and markets branded, generic and nutraceutical pharmaceutical products, offering a wide range of differentiated and affordable CNS treatment options to healthcare professionals and industry partners. With an international presence in more than 50 countries, the Group also manufactures finished dosage forms and active pharmaceutical ingredients dedicated to CNS and respiratory indications.
On September 27, 2017 the Supervisory Board of STADA
Arzneimittel AG appointed Dr. Claudio Albrecht as new Chairman
of the Executive Board with immediate effect. Dr. Albrecht
succeeds Engelbert Coster Tjeenk Willink who had held the
office of Chairman of the Executive Board on an interim basis
since July 4, 2017. Mark Keatley will take over the position
of Chief Financial Officer from his interim predecessor Dr.
Bernhard Düttmann, also with immediate effect. Dr. Barthold
Piening, Chief Technical Officer at STADA, will keep his
position on the Executive Board.
“We are extremely pleased that we have been able to attract
Dr. Claudio Albrecht and Mark Keatley, two managers with
extensive experience in the international pharmaceutical and
generics industry. With their expertise, they are exactly the
right people to move the transformation process that has
already been initiated forward and to help STADA sustainably
achieve more growth”, says Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Dr. Günter von Au. “We would like to express our sincere
thanks to Mr. Willink and Dr. Düttmann for leading STADA
through a very important phase and for taking the company
another step in the right direction with their extraordinary
level of commitment.”
“STADA is a company rich in history, with highly-motivated
employees and tremendous potential”, says Dr. Albrecht, new
Chairman of the Executive Board. “Together, we will work
toward making STADA more efficient and expanding it into a
major international group.”
Funds advised by Bain Capital Private Equity, LP (“Bain
Capital”) and by Cinven Partners LLP (“Cinven”), announced the
intention to launch a voluntary public takeover offer (the
“Takeover Offer”) for all outstanding shares of STADA
Arzneimittel AG (“STADA” or the “Company”).
STADA is a leading, independent pharmaceutical company listed
on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The Company offers a
comprehensive portfolio of high-quality, low-cost generic
products including selected biosimilars. STADA has also built
an attractive portfolio of well-established branded products,
including the cold medicine Grippostad® and the Ladival® range
of sun protection products.
APP conducted the commercial and product due diligence and
advised on all industry aspects of the transaction.
We are delighted to announce that Sean Bowler joins APP as Partner. Sean is an engineer who has been Head of Global Engineering and HSE in several major pharmaceutical companies. He has successfully developed and managed corporate systems in areas such as capital management, project and program delivery, asset life cycle management, network optimization, people development in technical roles and safety performance.
Ino Holdco S.A.R.L appointed Claudio Albrecht as non-executive Director. Ino Holdco is an entity controlled by APAX Partners and is the holding company of Neuraxpharm, Germany and Invent Farma, Spain. APP was already advising APAX during the due diligence for both entities.
APP was appointed to act as an industry advisor to a leading PE house for the acquisition of a mid sized specialty generic company focused on CNS in Germany. The company acquired is a leading player in CNS. Despite a broad generic Portfolio and Pipeline the company is focused on differentiated products tailored to the concerned target group. APP identified this opportunity, conducted the commercial and product due diligence and advised on all industry aspects of the transaction.
APP was appointed by a leading Middle East pharmaceutical company to advise them on creating an Oncology business in Iran. The project included product selection, development of a business plan, partner search, establishing of a JV structure and advise on the factory layout. The JV was established in June and the construction works for the new facility are starting right away. It is assumed that first products will be launched out of this new facility as early as 2018. Because we believe in this project, APP will hold a minority share in the newly formed JV.
APP was appointed to act as an industry advisor to a leading PE house for the acquisition of a mid sized boutique generic company. The company acquired is a player in the field of Active Pharmaceutical ingredients, runs a business to business franchise for finished dosage forms and operates a commercial front end. APP conducted the commercial and product due diligence and advised on all industry aspects of the transaction.
Claudio Albrecht, co-founder of APP, was invited as a key note speaker at the world generic congress in Barcelona 2016. The topic of his speech was the M&A activity in the generics industry. Scientific progress will force generics to spend more money for R&D and Sales and Marketing. Product categories like Biosimilars, Immunotherapies or Genetherapies paired with developments in digital health require much more investment than classic commodity generics. This will foster further consolidation among small and mid sized generic companies – Claudio Albrecht said.
We are delighted to announce that Jeff Rope joins APP as Senior Partner. Jeff Rope served as Global Head of Technical Operations for Sandoz and a member of the Sandoz Executive Committee. Jeff was responsible for a network of more than 30 manufacturing sites and external supply organizations supplying more than 160 countries worldwide.
Jeff has over 35 years experience in Pharmaceutical Operations. Previously Jeff was Executive VP Global Operations for Actavis and has held Plant leadership roles in Pfizer Global Manufacturing.
We are glad to announce that Shyam Rohra joins APP as Senior Partner. Shyam has served as President Actavis Operations India and Chairman Lotus Labs, Bangalore. Shyam Rohra also served ratiopharm in India as its CEO and Managing Director and before that as General Manager of Schweizerhall in India and held several managerial roles at Lupin Labs, Boehringer Knoll, Roussel and Warner Lambert’s Indian Subsidiaries.
In his 35 years service to Indian and International pharma
industry Shyam Rohra has built successful teams and
organizations from scratch, established new Laboratories,
manufacturing facilities, led several cost-saving initiatives,
built high quality response back-offices, helped create
strategic supply sources
APP was appointed to act as sole transaction advisor for a mid cap generic company in their endeavor to sell their business to a leading US player expanding its presence to Europe. APP was organizing the sales process, the Data room, was leading negotiations and was instrumental in the signing and closing process.
After assuming on an interim basis the leadership role for Polpharma, Peter was re-appointed to the board of directors of Polpharma. APP is having a longstanding relationship with the privately held CEE-specialist and conducted a series of strategic projects for Polpharma in the field of Biosimilars, process re-engineering, repositioning of Polpharmas B2B business and other strategic initiatives.