The largest drug company owned by Canadians, Apotex Pharmaceutical Holdings Inc., has agreed to be bought by the U.S. private-equity firm SK Capital Partners.Apotex has been around since 1974. It makes more than 300 generic drug products and has nearly 8,000 employees in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and India, among other places. The company says that it makes more than $1 billion a year in sales around the world.
The family of the late founder Barry Sherman owns the business. Mr. Sherman and his wife Honey were found dead in their Toronto home in 2017. It seems like they were killed, but the case hasn’t been solved yet, even though there was a lot of public interest and the family offered a $10-million reward at one point.At the time of his death, Forbes said Mr. Sherman was the 12th richest person in Canada with a fortune of $3.2 billion.
Before the deal with SK Capital was announced on Wednesday, the family had been thinking about selling for a few years. No information was given about how much the deal would cost. It is also subject to the usual rules and regulations.
The deal was made possible by loans from RBC Capital Markets RY-T -0.44%decrease, Bank of Nova Scotia BNS-T -0.96%decrease, HSBC HSBC-N -2.60%decrease, and Truist Securities TFC-N -1.18%decrease.
In a statement, Apotex’s president and CEO, Jeff Watson, said that the company was excited to work with SK Capital because of its expertise and resources.Aaron Davenport, the managing director of SK Capital, said that Apotex is an entrepreneurial company with a wide range of products and a list of new products that are about to come out.
In a statement, he said, “We feel incredibly lucky to be able to help Apotex with our years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry as it continues to research, develop, and make safe, affordable medicines for patients in Canada, the U.S., and around the world.”
SK Capital says it is in charge of assets worth US$6.6 billion. Its portfolio is mostly made up of companies that make specialty chemicals, materials, and medicines. Its main headquarters are in New York.
The U.S. Department of Justice fined Apotex last year for allegedly working with two competitors to set the prices of generic drugs. Fines of $447 million were given to Apotex, Taro Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., and Sandoz Inc. The three companies signed settlement agreements that required them to share information with the government about their prices and how they were set for the next five years.
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