Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd on Wednesday announced the signing of an agreement with Wockhardt Limited to acquire select divisions of its branded generics business in India and neighbouring countries of Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives for a consideration of Rs1,850 crore.
The business comprises 62 brands in multiple therapy areas such as Respiratory, Neurology, VMS, Dermatology, Gastroenterology, Pain and Vaccines. Wockhardt would transfer the manufacturing plant located in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh with all plant employees along with related sales and marketing teams to Dr Reddy’s on a slump sale basis.
“India is an important market for us and this acquisition will help in considerably scaling up our domestic business. The acquired portfolio shall enhance Dr Reddy’s presence in the high growth therapy areas with market leading brands such as Practin, Zedex, Bro-zedex, Tryptomer and Biovac. We believe the portfolio holds a lot of potential and will get an impetus under Dr Reddy’s. We welcome the team joining as part of the deal to the Dr Reddy’s family,” G V Prasad, co-chairman and managing director of Dr Reddy’s, said.
The divestment of Wockhardt’s domestic branded operations, including the Baddi plant, for Rs1,850 cr represents nearly 3.8 times of annualized revenue of the business being transferred.
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of the financial year 2020-21.
After the deal, Wockhardt said it would continue to run all international operations in the UK, USA, Ireland and other locations through its stepdown subsidiaries.
Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd is an integrated pharmaceutical company having a presence in the businesses of pharmaceutical services and active ingredients, global generics and proprietary products and offers a portfolio of products and services, including APIs, generics, biosimilars and differentiated formulations. Major therapeutic areas of focus are gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, diabetology, oncology, pain management and dermatology.
The company operates in markets across the globe, including the US, India, Russia and CIS countries and Europe.