Ipca buys manufacturing unit from Alpa Labs for $12M

By Jasleen Kaur Batra

  • 01 Oct 2014

Mumbai-based drug-maker Ipca Laboratories Ltd has acquired a manufacturing unit for high potency oral solid dosage owned by Alpa Laboratories Ltd located at Pithampur, Indore, for Rs 71.71 crore ($12 million) as per a company release.

The consideration is inclusive of non-compete fees, it stated.

This acquisition will help Ipca in integrating the hormonal APIs being manufactured at its manufacturing unit situated at Nandesari with hormonal formulations for the world market.

Indore-based Alpa Laboratories Limited is a manufacturing pharmaceutical company since 1967. It has a wide range of products including a wide variety of over the counter (OTC) drugs in various finished dosage forms for both human and veterinary use.

Ipca recently voluntary stopped shipments from its active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) manufacturing facility situated at Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh) for the US market.

During the recent USFDA inspection at the company's API manufacturing facility the company had received certain inspection observations from the US drug regulator. Consequent to this, the company had voluntarily decided to temporarily suspend API shipments from this manufacturing facility for the US markets till this issue is addressed.

Ipca counts a string of institutional investors in the company including private equity firms ChrysCapital and SAIF Partners besides few sovereign wealth funds.

The mid-size pharma company is more than six decades old and has a significant presence in domestic branded formulations, global branded and generic formulations and global APIs.

For the year ended March 31, 2014, it had revenues of Rs 3,281.7 crore with net profit of Rs 478.5 crore.