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Dishman Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals Ltd's Saudi Arabia plans are yet to take off as per plans. While the company's bulk drug making joint venture is expected to start production next month after almost a three-year delay, the company's 50:50 JV with Takamal to make disinfectants has been called off.
Dishman had two joint ventures in Saudi Arabia, a market largely untapped by Indian pharma companies.
It had formed a joint venture company to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in Saudi Arabia with three partners in end 2009 and expected to complete work on the facility in 15 months time. While Dishman owns a 30 per cent stake, Arab Company for Drug Industries and Medical Appliances (ACDIMA) has 15 per cent stake, Spimaco, one of the largest formulation manufacturers in the Arab world owns 20 per cent while the Capital Advisory Group (CAG) owns 25 per cent in the JV.
J R Vyas, chairman and managing director of Dishman said, "Work on the project has been slow, mainly owing to regulatory approval related delays. Also, getting quality manpower in Saudi Arabia is difficult. However, we expect to start production next month." Another joint venture was with Saudi based Takamal for making disinfectants which was expected to start production from 2012. This was a 50:50 JV. Vyas, however, informed that the joint venture has been called off. "Once we worked out the investments required for the manufacturing plant, it went into millions of dollars. We finally decided to call off the JV and also withdrew our investment," he added.
Dishman-Takamal JV had planned to set up a manufacturing facility at Riyadh to produce disinfectants for the hospital and hospitality sectors besides oil and gas.
The presence of water in oil exploration leads to bacteria formation, and the special disinfectants were targeted at the oil and gas industry in Saudi Arabia.
