Triple strike : Ranbaxy in third European acquisition in three days

Ranbaxy has announced its third European acquisition in as many days to take its aggressive inorganic growth strategy forward. The company said it would acquire Belgian generic drug company Ethimed NV for an undisclosed amount.

Ethimed reportedly has 20 product registrations and is the 10th largest generic drug company in Belgium. Ranbaxy management has not revealed the financials of the acquired company. The said the value of the transaction is 'modest'.

Ranbaxy had announced the acquisitions of the generic business of Glaxo in Italy and Romanian generic drug company Terapia earlier this week. The company had also announced the acquisition of patent and marketing rights of a self-injector device for the US market last week.

The company said the Belgium market is largely a branded, high priced market with increasing generic penetration. The Ethimed acquisition would considerably improve the presence of Ranbaxy in Belgium, which is the 7th largest pharma market in Europe. More importantly the acquisition opens up the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) market, with a combined pharma market size of $7.6 billion per annum, for Ranbaxy.

Ranbaxy management said the company is considering more overseas acquisitions and may raise more resources to fund these acquisitions. He company had raised $400 million from an FCCB issue recently.

Ranbaxy closed at Rs452 (up 9.9 per cent) on the NSE yesterday.