A & D Pharma representatives yesterday signed the credit contract at the Howard Johnson Hotel, which will allow them access to funding required to expand operations, sources on the market told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
The arranger of the loan, contracted for five years, is Citibank London along with Citibank International Plc, while Citibank Romania serves as Security Agent. The funds, available through several drawings, come from a syndicate of 11 lenders: Citibank, Bank Austria Creditanstalt, ING Bank, Invest Kredit (Austria), Raiffeisen, BRD, MKB-Hungary, Piraeus Bank, Banca Romaneasca, EFG Eurobank (Greece) and Alpha Bank.
Neither A & D Pharma, nor Citibank representatives had commented on this issue by the time the story was ready for print. A & D Pharma officials plan to expand to rural areas with their own network this year. A & D Pharma is controlled by Dutch investment fund Sograno, which also owns part of a distributor in Bulgaria.
Early this year the group had its business on the Romanian market valued at about 300 million euros, an amount registered as contribution to the share capital. Sensiblu, the leader of the drugstore market, was operating a 177-strong outlet network at the end of last year, a figure that includes the Europharm chain acquired from British giant GlaxoSmithKline, in a deal market sources put at some 10 million euros.
Sensiblu posted 63.7 million euros in turnover last year, and this year's estimates point to an increase to 120 million euros.
Sensiblu's competitors on the market are Help Net, whose shareholders are the same as those of Medimfarm pharmaceuticals distributor; Catena, part of the Fildas group, held by Anca Vlad; City Pharma, controlled by Relad distributor; and Dona, a chain owned by Siepcofar.
As for the distribution business, Mediplus turnover last year stood at 220 million euros.
The main competitors of Mediplus on the distribution market are Relad, Europharm Distributie, Fildas, Montero, Farmexpert and Farmexim.
A & D Pharma group has budgeted 19 million-euro investments and 440 million-euro turnover. The two companies of the group were established in 1997.
Recently, Citibank, part of the largest financial group of the world - Citigroup, has made a comeback on the corporate funding market.
Citibank Romania has recently granted a 30 million-euro loan to electrical power producer Hidroelectrica, which should be secured with ironclad power buy-sell contracts, instead of state guarantees, as was customary for the companies held by the state.
Its rivals on the corporate finance market are Raiffeisen, HVB, ING Bank, ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan.
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