Nicholas Piramal to focus on biotech

Mumbai: Nicholas Piramal India, the Indian pharmaceutical major, plans to enhance its presence in biotechnology, either through organic or through inorganic means. Reports suggest the company, which already enjoys a substantial presence in the field, is neither averse to alliances nor to acquisitions as long as it serves its purpose.

The push into biotechnology is part of Nicholas Piramal’s long-term strategy to get into its core areas of strength and to get out of non-core areas. Towards this end, the company has already got out of two of its alliance ventures, both of them in the hospital product segment. The alliances were with US majors Stryckers and US Surgicals.

Nicholas Piramal is reportedly talking to a biotech company, based in Europe, which is large in terms of size of operations and also has a well-groomed research and development division. The reports say the only stumbling block was the price the European company was asking for.

Negotiations were on and there are fair chances that talks might succeed, the reports say. Sources, however, refused to divulge the name of the European company and also declined to give the possible price at which the acquisition would be done or the price the company was asking for.

The company is apparently in talks with several parties and nothing concrete had emerged so far, but if the deal goes through the acquisition would be bigger than that of Rhone Poulenc India.

Nicholas Piramal is known for its acquisition strategies. In the recent past, it had taken over a multinational company, Rhone Poulenc India, for a sum of Rs 240 crore. Though initially Nicholas Piramal took a bridge loan from financial institutions for paying the acquisition price, it ultimately recovered the amount so paid by selling a large part of the real estate belonging to Rhone Poulenc India.