Piramal Health to buy Bharat Serums anaesthetic business

Piramal Healthcare has bought the anaesthetics products business of Bharat Serum Vaccines.

The acquisition includes the injectible anaesthetic products of Bharat including profol which is used for the initiation of anaesthesia and has a global market of $825 million.

The business is worth Rs 10 crore and the size of the acquisition is said to be between Rs 15 crore and Rs 20 crore.

The deal is minuscule for Piramal and, accoridng to analysts, will not add much other than expanding its critical-care portfolio.

According to Ranjit Kapadia, vice-president, institutional research, HDFC Securities, the deal will not add much to Piramal’s balance-sheet.

Piramal officials could not be reached for a comment.

However, sometime back, Piramal chief operating officer N Santhanam had said the company expects a growth of about 15-20% per year in critical care in future.

In 2004, Piramal, then Nicholas Piramal India, had acquired the inhalation anaesthetics business of the UK-based Rhodia Organique Fine Ltd for about Rs 63 crore, providing it access to two products—halothane and isoflurane.

In early 2009, the company acquired New York-based generic inhalation anaesthetics player Minrad International for about $40 million, getting access to enflurane, desflurane, and sevoflurane.
According to an analyst with a broking house in Mumbai, of the approximately $1 billion potential this segment carries, Piramal would be targeting a market size of $400-500 million.

“Critical care is a big business in the US and Europe and all the future acquisitions will help the company.”