Aurobindo and Intas submit binding offers to buyout Teva UK

Aurobindo and Intas, the drug makers from India, are among the final contenders in the list of buyers for the UK and Irish business of Israeli generics maker Teva. Both Indian companies have submitted binding offers of about $1 billion along with firm financing commitments, multiple sources aware of the matter told ET.

Teva is selling its assets after it acquired Allergan Plc's generics business for $40.5-billion in July last year. Prior to that, around 80 of its products in the US were sold to drug makers like Dr. Reddy's, Sagent, Cipla, Zydus Cadila, Aurobindo and Perrigo.

Aurobindo and Intas are in competition with London-based PE firm Cinven and buyout specialists Apollo Global Management LLC, along with global pharma giants Mylan NV and Novartis AG (as per a Bloomberg report).

It could still take some weeks for the buyer to get finalised, and preference would be given to someone with prior experience in the European generics market.

If the deal goes in favour of Aurobindo, its position in Europe would get strengthened because of Teva's UK and Ireland portfolio. It’s been two years that the company entered Europe after acquiring Actavis in a few countries, and the company has already turned around that business through cost-efficiency measures and the identification of high-margin products.

For Intas Pharmaceuticals, Europe is a very important market, and it already has marketing, out-licensing and contract manufacturing arrangements for its products shipped to Europe.

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