Welcome to Business Outlook
Related Articles
Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd finalised agreements yesterday to acquire 54.6 per cent of stakes in Sanofi Bangladesh for over Tk 400 crore.
“The final agreement happened with Sanofi today,” Mohammad Asad Ullah, company secretary of Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited, told The Daily Star.
“With that, the handover of the shares has been started,” he said.
The acquisition is set on expanding its capabilities and product base offerings into new specialty therapy areas, the local drug maker said in a disclosure published at the Dhaka Stock Exchange website yesterday.
This will also mark the French pharmaceutical giant’s exit from Bangladesh, ending operations spanning for more than six decades.
Earlier, Bangladesh Bank approved the Bangladeshi drug maker’s acquisition of the Sanofi shares from Fisons Ltd and May and Baker Ltd — two of its shareholders based in the UK.
The remaining shares are owned by Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation and the Ministry of Industries, 20 per cent and.4 per cent respectively.
Asked about the acquisition price, Ullah said he did not know anything about it.
Further announcements will be made in due course to confirm completion of the acquisition, the company said in a disclosure published at the DSE website yesterday.
Sanofi Bangladesh Limited generated Tk 303 crore in revenue, Tk 27 crore in profit before tax and had Tk 640 crore in gross assets in the year ending on December 31, 2020, according to its last audited accounts.
A part of Sanofi SA, a global biopharmaceutical company focused on human health, the Bangladesh operations were established in 1958 as a part of the British chemical company, May & Baker.
Following a series of mergers, it became known as Sanofi-Aventis in 2004, before being renamed as Sanofi Bangladesh Limited in 2013.
Its state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, including a PICIS certifiable manufacturing facility for the leading antibiotic, cephalosporin, are spread over 25 acres of land, located near Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited’s manufacturing facility in Tongi.
Sanofi Bangladesh has over 800 employees and produces approximately 100 branded generic products, predominately for the local market.
It has a strong presence in cardiology, diabetes, oncology, dermatology and CNS.
Sanofi also supplies its global brands of vaccines, insulins and chemotherapy drugs to Bangladesh through direct imports, which the group will continue to distribute following completion of the acquisition.
(TDS)
