Drugmaker Ratiopharm beats 2009 goal
Company being sold by Merckle family 'is well positioned operationally', statement says
Zurich/Frankfurt: Ratiopharm GmbH, the German drugmaker being sold by the Merckle family, beat its own forecast with 307 million euros (Dh1,539 million) in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation last year.
The earnings beat the year-earlier results and sales were flat at 1.6 billion euros, the Ulm-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. It didn't give exact figures for 2008.
Pfizer Inc, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Actavis Group are competing to buy the company, people with knowledge of the auction said this month. Ratiopharm sells three of the top ten generic medicines dispensed by German pharmacies, according to Norwalk, Connecticut-based research firm IMS Health Inc.
Privately held Ratio-pharm ranks fifth behind Teva, Novartis AG's Sandoz, Mylan Inc and Hospira Inc in the $78 billion (Dh286 billion) global generics market, based on 2008 sales, according to Frances Cloud, an independent analyst in London.
"The rising interest of the investors interested in buying Ratiopharm in the course of the bidding process shows that the company is well positioned operationally," the drugmaker said in the statement.
Expansion chance
Ratiopharm offers each of the bidders the chance to expand in the $8.6 billion German market for drugs that have lost patent protection.
Pfizer is offering as much as three billion euros, according to two people with knowledge of the talks. Each of the bidders has presented its plan to the company, which is expected to decide on a buyer by the end of the month, the people said.
Ludwig Merckle, the son of Ratiopharm's founder Adolf Merckle, is selling the company to repay debt amassed by his father, who committed suicide a year ago after making wrong-way bets on the stock market.
