Cadila Healthcare in late-stage talks to buy Claris Lifesciences for Rs3,400 cr

Cadila Healthcare Ltd is in late-stage talks to buy Claris Lifesciences Ltd for about Rs3,400 crore ($534 million), The Economic Times yesterday reported, citing sources aware of the talks.

Both companies are in late stage due diligence talks, and a deal is expected to be announced next month, the paper reported.

Cadila is likely to pay a hefty premium, valuing Claris at Rs3,100-3,400 crore. For 12 months ended 31 December 2014, the injectables business reported revenues of Rs 405.6 crore, the report added.

With a market cap of $240.5 million, Claris Lifesciences is the holding company of Claris Injectables, a wholly-owned subsidiary dealing in Specialty Injectables business, and 'Claris Otsuka', a joint venture with Japanese Otsuka Pharmaceutical Factory, Inc. & Mitsui & Co. Ltd.

Claris manufactures products across multiple delivery systems, markets, and therapeutic segments including anesthesia, blood products, anti-infectives, and plasma volume expanders.

A significant majority of these products are generic drugs, capable of being directly injected into the human body, predominantly used in the treatment of critical illnesses.

Its customers include government and private hospitals, aid agencies, and nursing homes, and around half of its sales come from 70 emerging markets, including Brazil and Russia.

Ahmedabad-based Cadila is one of the largest privately held pharmaceutical companies in India, developing and manufacturing pharmaceutical products and sells these in over 85 countries around the world.

The company is present in more than forty-five therapeutic areas spread across twelve specialities, including cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, analgesics, haematinics, anti-infectives and antibiotics, respiratory agents, antidiabetics and immunologicals.

Cadila formulations manufacturing plant is located at Dholka near Ahmedabad and at Samba in Jammu and Kashmir.

It also has two active pharmaceutical Ingredient manufacturing units at Ankleshwar, Gujarat and a formulation manufacturing facility at Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.