• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy
• Books
• Gallery

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Mumbai, June 8 Pfizer Animal Health has acquired Vetnex Animal Health Ltd, Ranbaxy’s animal health business that was later divested to ICICI Venture.

The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of the financial year, a Pfizer note said, without disclosing financial details.

(A PTI report said the deal was worth Rs 355 crore.)

Pfizer Animal Health is a business unit of Pfizer Inc, and Vetnex has a presence in the poultry, livestock and companion animal segments.

The transaction comes close to four years after Ranbaxy decided to divest its allied businesses including its chemicals, diagnostics and animal health business to ICICI Venture Funds, in late 2005, for an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore.

The acquisition then was completed through the acquisition of shares of Ranbaxy Fine Chemicals Ltd and asset transfer of its diagnostics and animal healthcare divisions of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd to Ranbaxy Fine Chemicals Ltd in December 2005.

A year later, Ranbaxy Fine Chemicals Ltd was re-named RFCL Ltd with three divisions – Vetnex (animal healthcare), Diagnova (diagnostics) and Rankem (fine chemicals). RFCL Ltd is a ICICI Venture portfolio company.

The animal healthcare division was de-merged into a separate entity, Vetnex Animal Health Ltd, through a High Court order earlier this year, an ICICI Venture note said.

In its note on Monday, ICICI Venture Funds Management Company Ltd said it had signed a definitive share purchase agreement for Pfizer Animal Health to acquire all common shares of RFCL Ltd’s Vetnex.

The acquisition is expected to close by August, subject to necessary regulatory approvals, it added.

ICICI Venture’s Managing Director and Chief Executive, Ms Vishakha Mulye, said: “RFCL is a classic ICICI Venture buyout, involving the divestiture of a non-core business of a large corporate along with participation from the management team of the business.

“This transaction with Pfizer Animal Health, one of the world’s largest animal health businesses, reinforces the ICICI Venture way of investing in fundamentally strong businesses, and adding value through strategic direction, acquisitions and efficient capital allocation.”

NM Rothschild is acting as exclusive financial advisor to ICICI Venture for the transaction.

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line