Sanofi may sell Romanian drug maker to Indian group

Indian pharma company Torrent Pharma would like to buy drug maker Zentiva, including its Romanian division, and is willing to pay EUR 2 billion to close the deal, according to Ziarul Financiar, quoting Indian publication LiveMint. French group Sanofi has put up for sale its generic drug division Zentiva last fall. The potential buyer is currently trying to get a syndicated loan to support the offer. If this transaction goes through, Zentiva would become the second Romanian drug factory owned by an Indian group after Terapia, which became part of Indian group Ranbaxy in 2006. The Romanian division of Zentiva is the former state-owned Sicomed, which was privatized in 1999, bought by Zentiva in 2005, and later acquired by Sanofi in 2009. Zentiva Romania had a turnover of EUR 91 million and a net profit of EUR 15.8 million in 2017. editor@romania-insider.com