By Arno Schuetze
FRANKFURT, March 25 (Reuters) - German pharma group
Cheplapharm is planning to list on the stock exchange in the
second half of the year in a deal that could value the company
at 10-12 billion euros ($11.8-14.1 billion), including debt,
people close to the matter said.
Cheplapharm has no research and development of its own, but
buys established products from large pharma groups which it then
produces with a lean manufacturing set-up.
JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Credit
Suisse are expected to lead the initial public offering
with the help of bookrunners such as Barclays and Citi
, the people said, adding the official bank mandates are
due shortly.
The Frankfurt stock market listing is likely to be kicked
off in September or October, the people said.
Cheplapharm and the banks declined to comment or were not
immediately available for comment.
Cheplapharm is expected to post adjusted earnings before
interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of about 800
million euros this year. In October, it told bond investors that
its core earnings stood at 680 million in the previous 12
months. It has since completed major acquisitions.
Peers, such as Recordati and Dermapharm,
trade at 15-18 times their core earnings.
Cheplapharm had net debt of 2.3 billion euros as of
end-2020.
Earlier this year, Cheplapharm closed its largest
acquisition so far, the purchase of products for cardiovascular
and metabolic diseases from the Japan pharma group Takeda
.
The deal was part of a massive shopping spree in recent
years, mainly financed with high-yield bonds, which included
purchases from AstraZeneca, Novartis, Roche
and Sanofi.
In the last 25 years, the company acquired more than 100
products in deals valued at more than 3 billion euros
altogether.
Cheplapharm, founded in 1998, is family-owned with 50
percent each owned by siblings Sebastian Braun and Bianca Juha,
who also sit on the management board.
($1 = 0.8491 euros)
(Reporting by Arno Schuetze; editing by Barbara Lewis)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
Barclays (BARC)
