BioProgress buys specialist Italian pharma Segix for €1.95m
BioProgress plc (BPRG.L), the growing speciality pharma and healthcare company, said today that it will buy Segix Farma SRL, an Italian speciality pharma company based near Rome, for €1.95m (£1.3m) in cash and shares.
BioProgress Chief Executive Officer Richard Trevillion (pictured) said the acquisition was "a continuation of our strategy to dynamically grow [our] sales and marketing capability.
"Segix gives us access to a further European market with a solid revenue base, and acts as a platform for the launch of our products and developments within our patient supportive care strategy.”
It is the latest event in an extensive restructuring of BioProgress that has involved reorganisation and acquisitions. (See our earlier article). Late last year the group bought French specialist pharma Dexo that added robustness to its cash flow and enabled BioProgress to apply its technologies to Dexo’s products, develop new products and market the enhanced products directly. Today's move is clearly an extension of this strategy.
Segix
Segix is a private company that specialises in the distribution and marketing of established products in the anti-infective, gastrointestinal and oncology therapeutic areas. It works with strategic partners and agents, enabling it to sell into most of Italy. Its portfolio currently includes the brands Ceporex, Tamoxifen, Gabbroral, Acyvir, Curoxim, Eusaprim and Lefcar.
Last year Segix revenues were €2.6m (£1.77m) and profit was €0.2m (£0.14m). At the end of December it had net assets of €1.7m (£1.16m).
Luigi Baldassarri, Segix’s current general manager, will stay on until a replacement is appointed.
Completion of the deal is conditional on obtaining certain waivers and consents, and is expected to happen on 4th July. The acquisition cost of up to €1.95m will be paid in €0.7m cash and €1.25m in BioProgress equity.
The acquisition will be made through Dexo BioPharm Limited, its pharmaceutical division. The division itself was put together by combining recently acquired Dexo, a French speciality pharmaceutical firm, and a joint venture with generics supplier Crescent Pharma Ltd - named Dexo BioGenerics Ltd, in which BioProgress owns 75.1%.
BioProgress, listed on AIM and Nasdaq, saw its share price dip slightly after the announcement but by mid morning it was unchanged from its Monday night close of 46.25p, which values the group at £62.4m.
20th June 2006
