FIPB green lights Gland Pharma’s acquisition by Shanghai Fosun

Hyderabad: The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on Wednesday finally cleared the decks for Chinese pharma giant Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group (Fosun) to acquire majority stake in city-based Gland Pharma, a manufacturer of small volume parenterals (SVPs). The FIPB nod came five days after the board deferred clearance of the deal. In July last year, Gland Pharma and Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group had announced that the latter will be acquiring 86% stake in the privately-held Hyderabad-based company for a consideration of $1.26 billion (then around Rs 8,500 crore).

Gland Pharma had informed that Fosun Pharma will be purchasing all the shares of the company owned by KKR Floorline Investments Pte Ltd, which amount to around 37%, in addition to shares of other shareholders of the company.

Post-acquisition, Gland Pharma’s founder P V N Raju and his son Ravi Penmetsa will remain on the board and Ravi Penmetsa will continue as the company’s managing director and CEO. The PVN Raju family will also continue to hold 10% stake in the company, the company had informed earlier.

While Gland Pharma manufactures generic injectables, Fosun is a Chinese conglomerate with interests in businesses such as wealth management, healthcare and tourism, among others, and is headed by Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang, better known as China's Warren Buffett. Gland has four manufacturing facilities, including three in Telangana and one in Andhra Pradesh.

While it has a liquid injectables units at Dundigal and Pashamylaram, it has a penems unit in Hyderabad and an oncology unit at Visakhapatnam. The company has two Research and Development laboratories at Hyderabad with over 250 scientists.