Upfront

NPIL to buy stake in Boots Piramal

Our News Bureau - Mumbai

Nicholas Piramal India Limited (NPIL) announced its acquisition of the balance equity stake in Boots Piramal Healthcare, a 49:51 JV between NPIL and Alliance Boots. NPIL has acquired the balance 51 percent equity stake, which was held earlier by The Boots Comapny, a subsidiary of Alliance Boots. Boots Piramal Healthcare is a focused marketing company marketing OTC brands of Alliance Boots and Nicholas Piramal in the Indian market. Following the acquisition of OTC healthcare business of Alliance Boots by Reckitt Benckiser, UK, globally, Alliance Boots has decided to exit the joint venture in India.

The company will now become a wholly owned subsidiary of Nicholas Piramal and the name of the company will be changed to remove the words ‘Boots’ from its name.

The commercialisation of the former Boots OTC brands in India will now be taken over by Reckitt Beckiser (India), the Indian subsidiary of Reckitt Benckiser, UK. Further, as a part of this arrangement, Nicholas Piramal has received a one-time sum of Rs 178 million. Nicholas Piramal will continue to actively market and distribute its own OTC brands like Saridon, Polycrol and Lacto Calamine which are large and growing brands and also own the field marketing team.

The OTC business being central to NPIL's strategy to build dominance in the Indian market, it will continue to invest heavily and grow its OTC brands. NPIL also plans to launch OTC brands in new therapy areas, as well as transition some of its Rx brands to OTC through leveraging its sales and marketing team.