The Competition Council in Romania has given permission to Penta Investments to go ahead with its plan to buy Belladonna, a pharmaceutical chain in Romania, the Romania Insider reported.
The Slovak financial group, which owns about 1,300 Dr. Max pharmacies in central Europe, decided to purchase the Romanian chain of pharmacies towards the end of 2018. Following that, the Competition Council has been analysing the transaction for the last two months.
Belladonna owns 93 pharmacies, an overwhelming majority of which are dispersed throughout the capital of Bucharest. At this point, it is not known how much Penta will pay for the acquisition.
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The group's share in the pharmaceutical market in Romania will account for 65 percent after signing the contract with Belladonna, as reported by the Romania Insider.
Yet, it is not the first time that the Romanian competition authority has had to examine Penta's acquisitions.
The Competition Council, in December 2017, looked at Penta's purchase of Romanian group A&D Pharma, a leader in the pharmaceutical market, since this could have distorted the country's pharmaceutical market, the Romania Insider reported.
A&D Pharma included the pharmacies Sensiblu, Punkt and the biggest local drug distributor Mediplus Exim.
To be allowed to acquire the Romanian group, Penta had to to give up on 18 out of 31 Arta pharmacies, which the Slovak group bought in June 2017 and transformed into Dr. Max, the Romania Insider wrote.
Disclaimer: the Penta financial group has a minority share in Petit Press, the co-owner of The Slovak Spectator.
