October 4 (SeeNews) - Brazilian pharma group EMS SA has placed a bid in the tender for the privatisation of Serbian ailing drug maker Galenika, Serbian media reported on Wednesday.
EMS SA participated in a tender for the sale of a 25% state-owned stake in Galenika in 2016 but its bid was ranked as invalid over procedural issues, daily Politika reported.
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Two bids for Galenika have been placed within the October 2 deadline, and the other one was submitted by Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company Amicus, Politika said on Tuesday.
Amicus plans to transform Galenika into a modern production centre to supply products to other markets on which the Swiss company is present, the newspaper quoted the CEO of the owner of Amicus, HBM Partners, Andreas Wicki, as saying.
"Our intention is not to buy Galenika, take control of its brands, sell its property and move its production activities to factories in other locations. On the contrary, we have a completely different strategy, to buy and build," Wicki said.
The tender commission will check on Wednesday whether the bids meet the requirements of the tender. One of the requirements is for an annual turnover of at least 300 million euro ($352.3 million).
The Serbian government launched the tender for the sale of its 93% stake in Galenika on September 1. The minimum price was set at 25 million euro for the repayment of Galenika's debt plus 1 euro for the tendering.
($ = 0.849891 euro)