Fosun to sell 5% stake worth $172 mn in Gland Pharma via block deal

Fosun is said to plan block deals to pare stake in Gland Pharma

Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. is likely to sell 5 percent stake in India’s Gland Pharma through block deals after being unable to offload it in one go.

The block deal for Gland Pharma is likely to be launched at nearly 5 percent discount to the stock's current market price, showed the term sheet accessed by Moneycontrol.

Fosun Pharma will sell 82 lakh shares at a price range of Rs 1,750 per share, valuing the stake around $172 million, the term sheet showed.

The broker to the deal is UBS.

The development was first reported by Bloomberg.

The listed arm of billionaire Guo Guangchang’s Fosun International Ltd. holds about 58 percent of Gland Pharma, which has a market value $3.6 billion. It will carry out more block sales in the coming months to shore up its balance sheet unless buyout firms make an offer, Bloomberg reported earlier citing sources.

Fosun Pharma’s high valuation expectations for Gland Pharma have been a hurdle to a potential sale to private equity firms, the people said.

Gland Pharma specializes in injectable drugs such as antibiotics, oncology and cardiology treatments and has a presence in about 60 countries, including Australia, Canada, India and the US, according to its website.

Fosun Pharma acquired a 74 percent stake in Gland Pharma for about $1.1 billion in 2017 from a group including KKR & Co. The business was listed three years later in Mumbai. The Hyderabad-based company’s shares have climbed 82 percent over the past 12 months, but they are down more than 55 percent from a 2021 peak.