HLL Lifecare Limited (HLL), a mini ratna public sector enterprise, has acquired 74 per cent stake in Goa Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (GAPL). The development comes after Goa government last week approved a proposal to disinvest 74 per cent equity stake of GAPL, held through state-owned EDC Limited.
GAPL is a state PSU incorporated in 1980, as a joint venture between Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd (HAL) based in Pune and EDC Ltd (part of Goa government). HAL’s stake was transferred to EDC in 1987.
Its factory premises is spread out over 84,000 sq. metre campus, comprising approximate 52,000 sq.ft built up area. The plant is situated around 6 km from Pernem railway station.
Under the agreement, HLL Lifecare will use this acquisition to strengthen and diversify its pharmaceutical portfolio. The company, which is into manufacturing and marketing of contraceptives, offers several women’s healthcare products and has a distribution network which reaches out to over 30,000 medical professionals and over 3,500 hospitals in the country.
“We are enhancing our pharma manufacturing capabilities to cater to the market potential. HLL Lifecare wishes to strengthen its pharma segment through similar acquisitions. It is also in tune with our diversification plans across the health segment, including project management consultancy, manufacture of vaccines, establishment of diagnostic centres and generic medicine outlets,” according to HLL chairman and managing director M Ayyappan.
The company also has two major brands - Hindlabs and Life Care Centers (LCC), through which it provide diagnostic services and retail pharma products.
The company manufactures products in segments of transfusion services, wound care services and advanced patient care. The pharma production facilities of the company are located in Belgaum and Indore.
Pharmaceutical space in the country has seen a large amount of M&A activity in the last few years. Some of the recent deals in this segment include Torrent Pharma acquiring branded and domestic formulation business of Elder Pharma for $326 million, Granules acquiring Auctus for around $19 million and Vivimed Labs acquiring Actavis Pharma for $20 million.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
