Aspen Pharmacare

active

The proposed investment is a financing package comprising an A loan  of EUR200 million and up to EUR400m in B/Parallel loans to Aspen Finance (Pty) Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited (‘Aspen’ or the ‘company’) or the ‘Group’, https://www.aspenpharma.com/), a South African based and Johannesburg Stock Exchange (‘JSE’) listed global specialty and branded pharmaceuticals company with a presence in both emerging and developed markets. Aspen is Africa’s largest pharmaceuticals company, a manufacturer and distributor of lifesaving medicines and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (‘APIs’). The company focuses on marketing and manufacturing a broad range of post-patent, branded medicines and domestic brands covering both hospital and consumer markets through their key business segments.  The company’s key business segments are Manufacturing and Commercial Pharmaceuticals. Commercial Pharmaceuticals comprises Regional Brands and Sterile Focus Brands that include vaccine, anesthetic and thrombosis products. The company’s manufacturing footprint includes seven API and 16 Finished Dose Form production facilities situated across Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States (US). The company supplies medicines to over 150 emerging and developed countries (including 18 in Africa) through its 71 established offices in more than 50 countries. The API manufacturing network comprises seven owned facilities, three located in the Netherlands (two in Oss and one in Boxtel), one in the US (Sioux City), two in France (Notre Dame de Bondeville) and one in South Africa (Cape Town). In addition, the company has two API manufacturing blocks situated at Laurus Laboratories in India. These sites provide Aspen with specialized API manufacturing capabilities for their own use, as well as third party commercial opportunities. Aspen is also a ‘front-line’ manufacturer of essential COVID-19 drugs by way of the agreement recently signed with Janssen (a Johnson & Johnson company) for the related technology transfer to enable Aspen to compound, finish, fill and package the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine which has further induced a demand on the company’s manufacturing capacity.This proposed investment therefore seeks to support Aspen by providing long tenor funding for capital expenditure, acquisitions and the refinancing of Aspen’s existing debt and working capital needs for its global business including, but not exclusively limited to addressing the surge in demand for pharmaceuticals resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic (the ‘project’). The project will be a part of IFC’s Global Health Platform (‘GHP’) which is focused on supporting a ‘front-line’ manufacturer of essential COVID-19 vaccines and drugs, which will be central to the effort to overcome the current pandemic.