German group Phoenix expands its pharma business in Romania by takeovers

Romania’s Competition Council approved on October 29 the acquisition of three smaller local drug store chains, Tinos Farm, Flora Farm and Proxi-Pharm, by Help Net Farma, one of the biggest network of pharmacies, owned by German group Phoenix. Help Net will thus add 33 more units to its network.

The competition body found that the transactions do not raise significant obstacles to the effective competition on the Romanian market.

The companies Tinos Farm and Flora Farm carry out their activity in the retail trade of pharmaceutical products, through specialized stores. The 16 pharmacies owned by Tinos Farm and Flora Farm and taken over by HelpNet, are located in Bucharest and in Ilfov county. Proxi-Pharm operates 17 pharmacies in Constanta county in eastern Romania.

German group Phoenix bought the Farmexim drug distribution company and the Help Net pharmaceutical retail network (including over 200 pharmacies at that time) from Romanian investor Ovidiu Buluc in early 2018. The group operates on 26 European markets and has over 34,000 employees. The group’s turnover amounts to over EUR 24 billion per year.

The other major drug store networks in Romania are Catena (owned by Romanian investor Anca Vlad), SensiBlu (owned by Czech group Penta Investments), and Dona (controlled by Romanian investor Eugen Banciu).

(Photo source: the company)