Sibiu-based Polisano group chairman Remus Borza says this is “a double-digit deal, below EUR20 million.”
“We sold because we needed the money for the distribution company of the group. This company used its own funds to finance the investments of the Polisano group in the past, instead of using banks’ money, so it is now cash-strapped,” Borza added.
Polisano has 103 Reteta pharmacies and is selling 73 of them.
Borza says the investments of the Polisano group are now going towards clinics and hospitals, “the most state-of-the-art in Romania, which will be able to do every kind of surgery.”
Retail pharmacy chain Catena, part of the Fildas group of Romanian entrepreneur Anca Vlad, is the market leader (about 500 pharmacies in 2015) and A&D Pharma-held Sensiblu (400 pharmacies in 2015) is trying to narrow the gap.
Pharmaceutical retail sector numbers about 8,200 pharmacies, with sales estimated at 10.5 billion to 11 billion lei (EUR2.33 billion to EUR2.45 billion) sales a year. (EUR1=RON4.4884)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)