Germany’s Stada becomes ‘hottest drugmaker’ as private equity circles

Bloomberg

German drugmaker Stada Arzneimittel AG’s biggest problem — its insipid
profitability — is making it one of the most hotly coveted assets in a bidding war
that’s driven the price to 3.61 billion euros ($3.87 billion).
Consortiums of private equity firms including Advent International Corp. and Permira, as well as Cinven Ltd. and Bain Capital, have made offers in recent weeks to acquire the company, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Stada, based in a sleepy spa town on the outskirts of Frankfurt, has even attracted attention from as far as China, with Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding Co. considering joining the mix with CVC Capital Partners, people have said, asking not to be identified as discussions are confidential.
The intensifying pursuit, which has already boosted Stada shares by about 70 percent in the past year, centers around the buyout firms’ conviction that they can slash its costs and boost earnings. The company’s three-year average operating profit margin of 11 percent is among the lowest for makers of cheap copycat drugs globally, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Streamlining the manufacturing, breaking up the firm or firing some of its more than 10,000 employees are potential targets for the buyers. “Obviously, there’s potential for improvement,” said Bernhard Weininger, a Frankfurt-based analyst with Independent Research GmbH. “That’s the main reason why Stada is of great interest for financial investors.”
The feeding frenzy is driven in part by private equity firms’ search for fresh targets as a cycle of buying and selling each others’ assets in so-called secondary buyouts dry up, executives at the SuperReturn International conference in Berlin said earlier this month. Many private equity firms have already sold their vintage assets, which are businesses that have been held for about five years and are ready to go on the block, while other companies in their portfolios aren’t yet ripe for an exit.
Stada’s international ambitions have also left it more vulnerable. An expansion into Serbia and Russia — undertaken about a decade ago to spur growth — has proven to be a millstone in the past three years.