Asahi Songwon Colors zooms 4% after buying 78% stake in Atlas Life Sciences

Asahi Songwon’s share price climbed to a high of Rs 346.45 as against Rs 332.70 at previous close on the BSE. The stock succumbed to profit booking, however, and was trading 1.5 per cent lower.

According to reports, the acquisition includes a fully operational WHO-GMP certified manufacturing facility in Odhav, Ahmedabad, a 4,000 square-feet R&D facility, a corporate office and a 15,000-square-meter land parcel in Chhatral with EC permission for 32 products, for future expansion activities.

“We have forayed into the API manufacturing sector to achieve higher growth. Atlas Life Sciences is market leader in Pregabalin. We will establish a new API plant on the land parcel of Chhatral with an investment of around Rs 45 crore, which is likely to be operational by September 2023,” Gokul Jaykrishna, CEO and joint MD, Asahi Songwon Colours Ltd was quoted as saying in reports.

Asahi Songwon will acquire the remaining 22 per cent stake in two tranches of 11 per cent each over the next two financial years till 2025, reports said.

Atlas Life Sciences enjoys a dominant market position for pregabalin API, an anticonvulsant drug, which was originally a Pfizer patent, but went off-patent in 2019, reports said, adding that the company has manufacturing capacity of 25 tonnes per month with 90 per cent of its supplies going to domestic pharma buyers.

Apart from Pregabalin, the company’s portfolio includes R-Compound, Phenylephrine HCL, Gliclazide, Amisulpride and Levosulpirid, reports said.

Atlas Life Sciences had reported Rs 109.28 crore turnover for FY21, with EBITDA of Rs 7 crore and profit after tax of Rs 4.34 crore, reports said.