Acquisitions left and right. The acquisition spree is dragging on, with a fresh batch announced yesterday, a lot of which had to do with the pharma and med sphere.

TRIQUERA ACQUIRES ANOTHER 22% OF MINAPHARM-

Triquera now owns 50% of Minapharm: Triquera acquired an additional 22.18% — represented in 6.4 mn shares — in local drugmaker Minapharm in an EGP 1.3 bn a block trade transaction, Amwal Al Ghad quotes sources it says are familiar with the matter, adding more color to an EGX bulletin. The transaction pushed Triquera’s stake in the company to 50% from 27.82%.

CITY LAB HAS A NEW SHAREHOLDER-

Premium Diagnostics UAE acquires minority stake in City Lab: PremiumDiagnostics UAE has acquired a 9.38% stake in local medical diagnostic services provider City Lab in an EGP 60 mn transaction, according to an EGX disclosure (pdf) yesterday. The Emirati arm of Premium Diagnostics purchased some 60 mn shares at EGP 1 apiece.

We were expecting a bigger sale: City Lab’s extraordinary general assembly earlier this month approved selling up to EGP 250 mn worth of shares to a consortium that includes Premium Diagnostics’ Saudi, Emirati, US, and Egyptian arms — weeks after it announced the plan.

More to come? It’s unclear if the remaining Premium Diagnostics units, initially said to be interested in City Lab, have been dropped from the plan, or additional stake sales are in the works.

Who sold? A number of retail investors offloaded some of their holdings in the company. This includes company chairman Ali Ramadan, who sold a 3.04% stake, reducing his ownership in the company to 15.65%, according to an EGX disclosure (pdf).

Behind the sale: Hermes Securities Brokerage acted as broker on the transaction.

GOLDMAN UPS STAKES IN CLEOPATRA-

Goldman Sachs International has upped its stake in Cleopatra Hospital to 5.12% from 4.99%, according to an EGX disclosure (pdf). The investment banking firm snapped up some 1.7 mn shares for EGP 10.4 mn — or EGP 6.11 apiece. CI Capital’s CIBC was the broker on the transaction.

Tags: