Alivira to buy majority stake in Spanish animal health firm Karizoo Group

Alivira Animal Health Limited, a subsidiary of Sequent Scientific Limited, yesterday signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in Karizoo Group, one of the leading animal health groups in Spain and European markets.  

Alivira will acquire 60 percent stake in the family held Vila Vina Particpacions (VVP) which owns Karizoo Spain, Phytosolutions Spain, Covivet Spain and Karizoo Mexico. The existing promoters will continue to hold the balance 40 percent stake. The acquisition will be made through Alivira Ireland, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.

Headquartered in Caldes de Montbui, Barcelona (Spain), Karizoo Group achieved net sales of Euro 29.1 million in 2015 with an adjusted EBITDA of Euro 2.2 million. Karizoo has a strong presence across 14 countries including Spain, Poland, Germany, United Kingdom, Mexico and Iran. The group has 25 products under development in the areas of anesthetic gas, oral solutions, oral powders, oral suspensions and drug premix products.

Karizoo has an EU-GMP manufacturing facility near Barcelona for oral products - solutions, suspensions, anesthetic liquids, oral powders, and drug premix. The facility also has separate dedicated area for penicillin products.

The acquisition makes Alivira a significant player in the global animal health space with annualised revenues in excess of $ 120 million. Alivira will now account for over 66 percent of Sequent revenues with formulations business accounting for over 75 percent of Alivira business.

Karizoo will strengthen Alivira’s existing European operations in Belgium, Sweden and Netherlands, making Europe the largest region for Alivira’s operations with footprints in 15 European markets. Europe is the world’s second largest animal health market estimated at $ 9.6 billion in 2015. The market is expected to touch $ 12.2 billion by 2020.

Alivira now has a strong formulation business in the key veterinary markets of Europe, India, Turkey, Latam, Africa and South East Asia. It is already the leader in the veterinary market of Turkey and has recently doubled its presence in India with the acquisition of Lyka’s veterinary business. With Karizoo, Alivira would now have an established presence in Mexico in addition to its recent acquisition in Brazil, two key markets in LATAM.

The recently established API facility at Vizag makes Alivira one of the few integrated players in the global animal health space. The facility has already commenced supplies to Europe and the first filings for the US market have also been completed.

Manish Gupta, managing director of Alivira, said, “We are happy to announce this transaction which bolsters our European presence making it the largest market for Alivira. Karizoo brings into Alivira an EU approved manufacturing base and strong R&D capabilities, which we intend to leverage for our global operations. The Mexico operations of Karizoo along with our recently announced acquisition in Brazil provides us a strong foot-hold in the Latin American market. We will now have manufacturing operations in India, Turkey, Europe and in Brazil. All this augurs well with our strategy to become the first truly Global Animal Health business from India.”