European pharma firm Grupo Ferrer is parting with three plants, 140 employees and an ingredients business as it narrows its focus on its branded pharmaceutical business.
Ferrer has sold HealthTech BioActives (HTBA), a business centered on nutraceuticals, to U.S. private investment group The Riverside Company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but HTBA, which makes APIs, excipients, flavorings and sweeteners for the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetic industries, had sales of €51 million in 2018, Riverside said.
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The deal includes two Spanish manufacturing plants—one in Barcelona and one in Beniel, Murcia—as well as the 140 employees working for the business, Riverside said.
“We are very pleased to have reached this deal with Riverside,” Mario Rovirosa, CEO of Ferrer Pharmaceutical, said in a statement. “Not only does it reinforce our corporate strategy to focus on the branded pharma market, but it also offers a future of growth for HealthTech BioActives.”
The sale follows Ferrer’s deal earlier this year to unload its generics business, Tarbis Farma, to India’s Hetero for an undisclosed sum. Rovirosa began slimming Ferrer down after being named CEO in 2018.
