Samara Capital buys Adcock Ingram’s pharma business in India

Mumbai: South African drug maker Adcock Ingram Holdings Ltd has exited its pharmaceutical operations in India by selling its drug marketing and sale business to India-focused private equity firm Samara Capital Partners Fund II Ltd for ₹ 151 crore, the company said on Wednesday.

The Indian arm Adcock Ingram Healthcare Pvt. Ltd was fully owned by Adcock through its subsidiaries Adcock Ingram International (Pty) Ltd and Adcock Ingram Healthcare (Pty) Ltd.

One of the divisions of Adcock Healthcare provides transactional back office support service in the areas of regulatory services (drug dossiers, regulatory filings), quality control and assurance, medical affairs, information technology support and research and development (R&D) services to Adcock.

The regulatory services business is not included in the disposal and would be separated from Adcock Healthcare, said the company statement.

Adcock Healthcare had net assets of ₹ 31 crore and reported a net profit of ₹ 92 lakh for the six month period ended 31 December 2015.

Adcock Ingram operates in three hubs in sub-Saharan Africa—West Africa (Ghana), East Africa (Kenya) and Southern Africa (Zimbabwe). It has invested in a manufacturing facility in Bangalore, which offers an alternative source of supply for the South African market, the company website said.