Three pharma firms have import licenses suspended over quality violations
HCMC – The Drug Administration of Vietnam has decided to suspend the licenses of three pharmaceutical
Vietnam's medical and healthcare market 2023 will witness a series of M&A deals. Foreign investors show great expectations for the market of hundreds of millions of people when they spend millions of dollars to acquire major Vietnamese brands.
Adamed Pharma bought 100% of Dat Vi Phu Pharmaceutical.
The first major deal occurred in April when Adamed Pharma Group (Poland) announced that it had purchased and increased its ownership ratio at Dat Vi Phu Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (DaviPharm) to 100%; the value was not disclosed. Previously, since 2017, Adamed Pharma began owning 70% of DaviPharm shares.
According to the introduction, DaviPharm can produce 15-100kg batches with an annual output of 500 million units of highly active drugs. The total capacity of the factory is 1.2 billion units/year.
In April 2021, DaviPharm announced the certification of Vietnam's first solid, highly active drug production line to produce drugs with cytotoxic or cytostatic effects. These are a series of cancer treatment drugs in the form of hard capsules, tablets and film-coated tablets. This pharmaceutical company's portfolio includes 28 highly active drugs (HP) to treat breast cancer, leukemia, pancreatic, colorectal, stomach...
Founded in 1986 in Poland, Adamed Pharma is a giant corporation in the field of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.
Thomson Medical Group spent 9,000 billion to buy FV Hospital.
In July, the largest deal recorded in Vietnam's healthcare industry and Southeast Asia in 2023 was Thomson Medical Group (TMG, Singapore) acquiring FV Hospital (FV Hospital) with a value of 381.4 million USD (more than 9,000 billion VND), including 359.6 million USD upfront and 21.8 million USD to be delivered when FV Hospital achieves certain performance milestones.
TMG won the competitive bidding along with 20 other competitors.
Previously, Quadria Capital, a private equity firm focusing on the healthcare sector, invested in FV Hospital in 2017 for an undisclosed amount. Neuberger Berman Private Equity and DEG, a German financial institution, also participated.
Kiat Lim - Executive Vice President of Thomson Medical, son of billionaire Peter Lim - said Thomson Medical has been pursuing the FV Hospital deal for more than half a year, most of the time spent in the appraisal process.
According to the terms of the agreement, Thomson Medical will acquire 100% of the shares of Vien Dong Vietnam Medical Company Limited, the company that operates FV Hospital. The agreement corresponds to an enterprise value (Enterprise Value – EV) of about 328.5 million USD. With fiscal 2022 earnings before taxes, interest and depreciation (EBITDA) of $19.7 million, the EV/EBITDA ratio is 16.7 times.
During 2019 - 2022, FV Hospital's revenue will grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 8.3% (in SGD), EBITDA will increase by 14%, and profit after tax will increase by 14.9%. According to our data, FV Hospital's revenue reached more than 1,329 billion VND and profit after tax was 110 billion VND in 2020.
Jean founded FV Hospital - Marcel Guillon and a group of French doctors in Ho Chi Minh City in 2003. By the end of 2022, the hospital will have nearly 200 beds. Located in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, FV Hospital provides high-quality healthcare services to patients in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Since 2013, FV Hospital has added an outpatient clinic in the center of District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
The hospital has a floor area of 26,300 m2 and a team of 1,600 healthcare professionals, including more than 200 doctors. FV Hospital is investing to expand an additional 9,100 m2 of floor area.
Singapore's billionaire medical group acquired American International Hospital.
In October, Singapore billionaire Loo Choon Yong's Raffles Medical Group (RMG) approved buying a majority stake in the HCM city's American International Hospital (AIH) with the ambition to expand operations beyond China and Singapore.
Raffles has not disclosed the amount of money poured into AIH. The deal was carried out through a strategic cooperation contract with My My Trading and Services Company Limited, AIH's investor.
In operation since 2018 with a current valuation of 45.6 million USD, AIH has an operating capacity of 120 inpatient beds and a staff of about 500 people, including 60 doctors. This is a project of Tien Phuoc Group, a long-standing real estate developer in Ho Chi Minh City.
In July, Savills Vietnam valued AIH at 45.6 million USD.
Founded in 1976 by billionaire Loo Choon Yong with two clinics in Singapore, Raffles Medical currently has more than 100 clinics across Asia. Best known for Raffles Hospital in Singapore, the company has expanded into China recently, with hospitals in Beijing, Chongqing and Shanghai.
Korean corporation buys the largest pharmaceutical chain in the West
In October, Dongwha Pharm Group (Korea) announced that it had signed a contract to buy 51% of the shares of Trung Son Pharma, a company operating a pharmacy chain in Vietnam.
In documents submitted to the Korean Stock Exchange, Dongwha Pharm said it spent nearly 30 million USD on buying back 51% of Trung Son Pharma shares, equivalent to a valuation of up to 60 million USD (more than 1,412 billion VND).
Witnessing the growing demand for vitamins, red ginseng and Korean beauty care products in Vietnam, Dongwha plans to boost sales of these products.
Trung Son Pharmaceutical was founded in 1997 by a couple of doctors, Truong Thanh Son and pharmacist Truong Hoang Thanh Truc. This is the largest long-standing pharmacy chain in the West, with more than 140 stores, mainly concentrated in Can Tho City, An Giang province, Ca Mau, and has 2 branches in Ho Chi Minh City.
According to Business Korea, last year, with 140 stores, Trung Son Pharma achieved about 56.5 million USD in revenue, or more than 1,340 billion VND, with an average annual growth rate of 46% since 2019.
In the same year, Long Chau reached VND 9,596 billion in net revenue with 937 stores, and An Khang had revenue of VND 1,500 billion with 500 pharmacies (data as of the end of 2022).
Thus, on average, each Trung Son Pharma store brings in more than 9.6 billion VND in revenue, equivalent to Long Chau of 10.2 billion VND and higher than An Khang (on average, each pharmaceutical retail store of Chairman Nguyen Duc Tai earns 3 billion VND/year).
Recorded on the website, Trung Son Pharma offers various medicinal products, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, health supplements, cosmetics, medical equipment, health care products, and beauty (H&B), with a catalog of up to 2,750 SKUs.
In addition, Trung Son Pharma also owns a beauty salon, Trung Son Cosmetic, a cosmetics center, and an e-commerce site, TrungSonCare.com.
Through cooperation with Dongwha Pharm, Trung Son Pharma does not hide its ambition to further increase its presence to 460 stores by 2026, or 3 times the current number, and enter the big city - where Pharmacity, Long Chau, An Khang... are fighting fiercely.
The 200-year-old Japanese corporation increases its ownership ratio in Ha Tay Pharmaceutical.
Another notable pharmaceutical industry deal in 2023 is Japan's ASKA Pharmaceutical Group spending 180 billion VND (7.4 million USD) to increase its ownership ratio at Ha Tay Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (stock code DHT). When the deal is completed, ASKA will hold 26.8 million DHT shares, equivalent to nearly 33% of charter capital.
Previously, in 2021, ASKA became a strategic investor of Ha Tay Pharmaceutical by buying nearly 5.3 million newly issued shares for 70,000 VND/share, 18% higher than the market price of DHT shares when there. At this time, ASKA holds 24.9% of the charter capital of Ha Tay Pharmaceutical (6.6 million shares) and is the largest shareholder in this pharmaceutical company.
By June 2023, Ha Tay Pharmaceutical will divide bonus shares at a ratio of 180%, corresponding to shareholders holding 100 shares who will receive 180 new shares. The number of shares held by ASAKA increased to more than 18.4 million and has now increased to nearly 27 million units after the latest transaction.
DHT plans to spend 78 billion VND (3.21 million USD) to build a high-tech pharmaceutical factory and the remaining 102 billion VND to restructure bank loans to improve financial autonomy and reduce pressure.
In addition, the DHT Board of Directors temporarily limited foreign ownership to 44.31%.
Established in 1920, ASKA provides internal medicine, obstetrics, gynecology, and urology products. In April 2020, the company established an international business department to promote growth and development through operations in foreign markets.
The Japanese pharmaceutical company said the purpose of this transaction is to establish a base in Southeast Asia as a launching pad for expanding operations in the international market.
Korean Chaebol constantly buys Imexpharm.
Recently, Imexpharm Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (stock code: IMP) has just announced the Resolution of the General Meeting of Shareholders approving the exemption from public offers for the transfer of shares between SK Investment and its existing shareholders. With this Resolution, SK Investment becomes an investor holding over 65% of the shares with voting rights.
SK Investment's share ownership ratio at Imexpharm is 64.83%.
SK Investment invested in Imexpharm from the end of May 2020 after receiving the transfer of 12.3 million IMP shares, equivalent to 24.9% of the company's charter capital from funds belonging to the Dragon Capital group along with CAM Vietnam Mother Fund, Kingsmead, Mirae Asset.
SK Investment is a subsidiary of SK Group, the 3rd largest Chaebol in Korea. This is the first direct investment project of SK Group in Vietnam. Previously, SK Group was one of the major investment corporations in Vietnam's mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals.
