April 23 (SeeNews) - Romania's anti-trust body said on Monday it conditionally approved the takeover of Romania's largest pharmaceutical group A&D Pharma by Glebi Holdings, which operates under the Dr. Max brand.
Glebi Holdings agreed to sell 18 of its pharmacies formerly branded as Arta in order to get approval for the deal, the anti-trust body said in a press release.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
The transaction was announced in December.
In Romania, Glebi Holdings operates 31 pharmacies following the acquisition of Arta pharmacies in June 2017. In CEE, Dr.Max runs more than 1,300 pharmacies.
The acquisition of the A&D Pharma Group is expected to step up the sales of Dr.Max to more than 2.3 billion euro per year ($2.83 billion) and to boost its headcount to 12,000 people, Penta Investments, the owner of Glebi Holdigs, said in December.
Penta, established in 1994, operates mainly in healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, retail and real estate development. Penta operates in more than ten European countries and has offices in Prague, Bratislava, Warsaw and Munich. In Romania, Penta also owns the local subsidiaries of betting and gambling Fortuna Entertainment Group.
A&D Pharma is owned by four businessmen, according to data from the company's nine-month financial report. A&D Pharma owns the Sensiblu and Punkt pharmacy networks, Mediplus wholesale company in Romania and A&D Pharma Marketing and Sales – one of the biggest marketing and sales pharmaceutical platform operating in Central and Eastern Europe.
($ = 0.8129 euro)