Elder Pharma to acquire 20 per cent stake in UK's Neutra Health

Mumbai: Elder Pharmaceuticals Ltd will acquire a 20 per cent strategic stake in Neutra Health PLC, an AIM-listed company in the UK. The deal involves an investment of £5.63 million pounds (Rs 46 - 47 crore).

Elder Pharmaceuticals will subscribe to 35,197,026 equity shares of a face value of 10 pence at 16 pence per share.

Neutra Health PLC has three subsidiaries which market and distribute a range of neutraceutical products such as vitamins, specialised health supplements, over the counter medicines and 'Detox in a Box' health treatments, as well as the 'TravelGuard' range of travel related health products.

Neutra Health reported a turnover of 23 million pounds in 2006-07 and a current market capitalisation of close to 16.8 million pounds.

Elder Pharmaceuticals sees a lot of synergies being generated from this transaction with some of its brand finding entry into the UK market and with a distinct possibility of back-end production of some of the Neutra Health brands by the company. Some of the brands of Neutra Health can also be brought into India and some other countries where the company has operations.

Elder Pharmaceuticals proposes to finance the acquisition through issue of foreign currency convertible bonds and Euro convertibles.