The deal received the approval of the Competition Authority and the buyer is Marcos Provit, of Andrei Isac and Gabriel Neagu, part of the Evofarm group, which is active in the pharmaceutical retail and wholesale.
The 12 Polisano Pharma pharmacies represent the last piece of the Polisano group to be sold by the founding family after the business physician Ilie Vonica created went into decline following his death in 2014.
Before parts of the business were sold off one by one, Polisano was a real healthcare empire, estimated to be a EUR400 million business a year. The group included a drug factory, a wholesaler among the top five on the market, a network of about 100 pharmacies, and a hospital in Sibiu. It was one of the few integrated groups in the pharmaceutical and medical field.
After 2014, the group began to break up, with piecemeal sales to competitors. Thus, in 2016, a total of 73 Polisano pharmacies were bought by Sensiblu.
The Polisano Sibiu hospital ended up with MedLife at the end of 2017 and is now one of the largest units in terms of revenue of the private medical operator.
Also in 2017, Polisano Distribution, which posted revenue of more than RON1.3 billion and was the fifth largest pharmaceutical wholesaler on the local market in 2014, announced bankruptcy.
The same year, the Grampet railway group, controlled by businessman Gruia Stoica, became a shareholder of Polisano Pharmaceuticals and the majority owner of this drug manufacturer a year later.
And in 2022, eight years after the founder’s death, the last piece of Polisano leaves the Vonica family after the sale of the 12 Polisano Pharma pharmacies.
The buyer, Marcos Provit network, ended 2021 with sales of RON161 million, up 20%, and a profit of almost RON3 million, according to data on the Finance Ministry website.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)