Promed to sell stake for $15 mn

Promed Exports Private Ltd, a pharmaceutical company headquartered in New Delhi and having manufacturing unit in Nalagarh(Himachal Pradesh), is planning to offload its equity to fund its future expansion plan.

The company plans to raise $ 15 million through private equity placement. The company intends to add 4 additional manufacturing line in Nalagarh unit which would attract an investment of Rs. 100 crore. Also, it has plans to put a unit in Russia to cater to the Russian market.

The company has installed two state-of-the-art production lines with 90 million vials per annum capacity in its newly set up unit in Nalagarh(Himachal Pradesh). The total project cost is Rs 50 crore.

Promed shall be manufacturing both the aseptically filled and terminally sterilized products in solution and suspension forms, including eye drops, inhalation inhalation products, injectables, wound care solutions, ear drops and nasal drops, conforming to the USFDA (United States Food and Drug Administration), EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and other regulatory agencies.

Speaking to Business Standard, Promed Exports Private Ltd President, Deepak Bahri said, "In the next two years, the company shall put up four more high-speed production lines, taking the capacity to 600 million vials per annum with a project cost of Rs. 100 crore".

"The funding process would be a combination of internal accruals, term loan from banks and private equity placement," he said.He further added that the company has plans to put up a unit in Russia to cater to the export market.

In the last finacial year, 2006-07 the company logged Rs 75 crore turnover. "With this new plant, we intend to achieve Rs100 crores turnover in the current financial year," he said and would now be reaching out to newer markets in Europe and US," he added.

Also, at the new unit, the company shall be undertaking contract manufacturing, formulation development and analytical development for liquid sterile products in Blow-Fill-Seal (BFS) containers in size ranging from 0.5 ml to 20 ml.

The company has also set up the Promed Research Centre (PRC) in Gurgaon with a team of 60 scientists, who are engaged in developing new formulations.It is planning to increase the number of scientists to 90 within 9 months to develop new products.

The comapny is also planning to foray into respiratory and antibiotic segments.

The Company, which started its operations in 1990 as an export house for pharmaceutical products procured through contract manufacturing, has been ranked the seventh largest exporter to Russia after Dr Reddys, Shanta Biotech, Ranbaxy, Unique, IPCA, and Shreyas, said Bahri. In the Russian opthalamic market, Promed ranks at fourth place.