Indian CEO drops buyout plans for British firm

An Indian origin CEO and co-founder of British pharma and healthcare firm, Goldshield Group, which has recently expanded its operations to India, has dropped his management buyout plan for the company.

The United Kingdom-listed firm said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that the discussions for a possible management buyout, announced in November 2006, have ceased and the company was instead mulling over splitting the group into two separate firms.

According to the planned reorganisation, the Pharma division would manage all of the acquired pharma products business, while the WellBeing division would manage its existing direct to consumer businesses in Europe and the United States, as well as new WellBeing business in India.

The pharma business would be led by Goldshield finance director Rakesh Patel, while the WellBeing business would be headed by the group chairman, CEO and co-founder Ajit Patel.

The group was founded by Kenya-born Ajit Patel, together with his brother and the group's chief operating officer Kirti Patel, and the company's pharmaceutical products sales director Shane Gogerly.

The £84 million (about Rs 675 crore) firm sells its products across 60 countries. The group has a captive BPO unit in Mumbai to manage its global business and employs about 90 per cent of its total headcount of about 900 people.

It is also setting up a Goldshield WellBeing village in Goa, which has been labelled as a first-of-its-kind retirement resort in the country conforming to global standards.

The project consists of about 120 residential units, with facilities like hospital, hotel, nursing home, restaurants, shops, along with sports and leisure amenities to meet the requirement of retired personnel from India and aboard.

However, there have been allegations that Goldshield had obtained the necessary approvals for the project by unlawful practices -- leading to oppositions from the locals.

The group has been in limelight due to wrong reasons outside India as well and the two Indian origin founders were even arrested in 2005 in an inquiry into alleged price fixing during a sharp jump in drug prices supplied to the government departments in the UK in late 1990s.

However, in 2002, Forbes magazine had voted Goldshield as one of the top 200 best small companies outside the US, while in 1999, Readers' Digest magazine voted it as the fourth biggest brand in England.

The company claims to be market leader in mail-order nutritional and vitamin products in the UK.

It had also launched a wellness magazine Complete WellBeing in India last year.

While announcing its annual results in June 2006, the group CEO had said that phase-one of its first WellBeing Village in India was due for completion in December 2007.

The company also plans to open clinics, offering a wide range of medical, beauty and fitness services, throughout India, first of which was scheduled to open in Mumbai.

The group also plans to build several WellBeing Villages in various locations in India over the coming years.

The company's other India plans include WellBeing Resorts, targeted at medical tourists, first of which is also coming up in Goa by the end of this year.

These resorts would house a medical centre, spa, a hotel and leisure facilities.