Dubai: Dubai Investments PJSC [DI] announced on Thursday that it had divestment itself of 66 per cent equity stake in its pharmaceutical subsidiary Globalpharma Co. LLC. The Group will continue to hold 34 per cent equity in Globalpharma. This transaction yielded a healthy IRR of 26 per cent over a 10-year period for DI.
DI has divested 66 per cent to the investor group led by Sanofi, a global health care company headquartered in France. Globalpharma will be managed as a Sanofi company and will become the platform to manufacture and promote the generics portfolio of Sanofi in the Middle East markets.
“Our investment in Globalpharma was well timed as we capitalised on the rapid growth in the pharmaceutical sector in the region.” said Khalid Bin Kalban, Managing Director and CEO of Dubai Investments. “With the direction and support of DI, the management executed a successful strategy which has attracted a lot of strategic interest. This created the opportunity for our successful sell-down.”
“We believe that the new partnership being forged with Sanofi will propel Globalpharma to the next level of its growth,” added Kalban.
DI commercialised Globalpharma in 2003 and grew the company to become a market leader in certain therapies. Globalpharma is currently registered in more than 14 countries across the GCC, Middle Eastern, and neighbouring markets. Globalpharma manufactures pharmaceutical products under CGMP conditions including antibiotics, cardiovascular, anti-ulcerants, painkillers, food supplements, vitamins, anti-diabetics, respiratory products and anti-allergic formulations. Globalpharma has achieved healthy double-digit growth year-on-year since 2010.
