Speculation that Stada Arzneimittel may be looking for a buyout has largely been confirmed after the company’s CEO said as much in a recent German-language news story.
Responding to recent acquisition rumors, Stada CEO Peter Goldschmidt told the German Press Agency, “Whether and when STADA might be sold is solely the decision of our owners; Bain Capital and Cinven.”
From the company’s view, Goldschmidt said, “our owners are in an orientation phase in which initial exploratory talks are taking place.”
A Stada press representative emailed a translated version of the remarks early Tuesday along with the company's second-quarter results.
Goldschmidt added that he doesn’t expect a decision before 2024. Additionally, the company's investors “have no pressure to sell,” the CEO pointed out.
"What speaks in favor of a sale process is that it is common for financial investors to exit after five to six years,” Goldschmidt opined.
Early this month, Bloomberg reported that Stada’s private equity owners were weighing options for the drugmaker, including a possible sale. At the time, sources close to the talks told Bloomberg the sale could value Stada at 10 billion euros or more.
Bain and Cinven agreed to buy Stada for 5.3 billion euros in 2017. The deal gave the private equity firms control of what was one of the last independent generic-drug businesses in Europe.
Goldschmidt's comments came as Stada reported first-half sales growth of 16% to 2.1 billion euros. The company is tracking to a record annual profit of 1 billion euros this year, the company said.
Stada has been busy in recent months, both filling out its medicine chest and bolstering drug production abroad.
In mid-July, Stada dropped an undisclosed sum on a range of Sanofi consumer health brands with “well-established” footholds in places such as Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Spain and the U.K., plus Nordic countries.
The deal covered several brands, including the pain relief med Antistax, the allergy eye drops Lomudal and Opticrom, Omnivit vitamins and painkillers AAS and Dolalgial plus Bila-Git for gallbladder complaints.
The purchase marked the “next step” in Stada’s quest to grow in the European consumer health market, the company’s Western Europe and Germany head Stephan Eder said in a statement at the time.
In late November, Stada became the first international medicines company to build a plant in Romania in more than 30 years.
At the time, Stada broke ground on a pill manufacturing facility in the Aries Industrial Park in Turda, which was set to create 375 jobs and to go online by the end of 2024.