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Piramal considers $1-billion pharma services business sale: Reports

But analysts say pharma services constitute 6-7 percent of Piramal's revenues and is a drag on overall pharma business.

October 17, 2018 / 06:23 PM IST
Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Enterprises

Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Enterprises


Viswanath Pilla
Moneycontrol News
Pharma and financial services focused company, Piramal Enterprises, is said to be weighing the sale of its pharmaceutical services business for $1 billion, according to several media reports.

The reports, which the company termed "market speculation", indicate that it had sent feelers to investment bankers.

In its services business, the group does contract development and manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and formulations for other drug makers. The APIs and formulations include cytotoxic injectables, high-potency APIs, anti-body drug conjugates, among others.

Out of Piramal's overall revenues of Rs 10,639 crore, pharma constituted around 40 percent or Rs 4,322 crore in FY18. The company doesn't provide break up of its services business. But analysts say pharma services constitute 6-7 percent of Piramal's revenues and is a drag on overall pharma business.

Moneycontrol earlier reported that Piramal is also looking at the possibility of sale of healthcare insights and analytics subsidiary, Decision Resources Group (DRG), if it fails to grow revenues and improve profitability in the quarters ahead.

Piramal bought US-based DRG for Rs 3,400 crore in 2012 from private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, paying four times the $160 million revenue of DRG. DRG contributes around 11 percent of Piramal sales and is growing at slow pace.

In 2010, Piramal Enterprises had sold its branded generics unit in India to Abbott Laboratories for $3.7 billion. The non-compete agreement it had with Abbott to enter generics business had ended in September, sparking speculation about Piramal trying to enter generics business with a large buyout.

Viswanath Pilla
Viswanath Pilla is a business journalist with 14 years of reporting experience. Based in Mumbai, Pilla covers pharma, healthcare and infrastructure sectors for Moneycontrol.
first published: Oct 17, 2018 11:06 am

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