Drug maker Lupin plans to invest an average $100 million (Rs 450 crore) each in the coming years for capital expansion and acquisition of foreign companies, according to a senior official of the company. Ramesh Swaminathan, president – finance and planning, Lupin, said the company was looking for acquisitions in Korea, Latin American countries and Western European region like Italy, Portugal and Russia.
“We have a few proposals on the table and are evaluating them. Expanding to new geographies is part of our global expansion strategy and we plan to execute them in a phased manner,” said Ramesh Swaminathan, also the chief financial officer of Lupin.
He said the company had been investing an average $100 million each in the past few years to create facilities and would continue to do so in future. He said funds would not be a constraint for ideal targets and Lupin would prefer only risk-free low-cost acquisitions.
The company’s main strategy is to utilise the strength of India as a low-cost, quality manufacturing destination and serve the global market from its facilities here.
“Each of these markets differ and we may acquire plants in some of these targeted locations. For example, Europe has about 27 different regulatory regimes.”
In the last two years, Lupin had acquired seven small companies in various geographies to create front-ends for marketing. Last week, the company increased its stake in Australia’s Generic Health to 57 per cent from 49.91 per cent.
He said another strategy would be to acquire brands, mainly in the US market. The company, ranked among top five generic drug companies operating in the US market in terms of number of prescriptions, has three-four established drug brands in the market, including two acquired patented molecules.