Transasia eyes US buyouts

Transasia Bio-Medicals, a Mumbai-based diagnostic instruments manufacturer, is gearing up to acquire a company in the US. It is also setting up a greenfield manufacturing unit at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh.

The total expansion cost -- for the acquisition as well as the new unit -- would be around Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million).

Suresh Vazirani, chairman & managing director of Transasia Bio-Medicals, said: "We expect our US acquisition to cost us around Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) while our new manufacturing project at Baddi is being set up at an initial investment of Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million)."

"We are also looking at acquisition opportunities in Europe. The expansion programme would be funded through a mix of internal accruals and loans."

Transasia Bio-Medicals competes with multinationals like Roche and Abbot in the domestic market. The cost of production of diagnostic instruments in India, according to Vazirani, is just about a tenth of the cost in the US and Europe.

An acquisition in these markets makes sense in terms of acquiring a ready-made market share, thereby getting a toe-hold in the region.

The company has also announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with Japanese diagnostics major Sysmex Corporation.

A joint venture company -- Sysmex Transasia -- is being floated in which the Japanese company will hold 51 per cent equity while the balance will be held by Transasia Bio-Medicals.

As per the deal, Transasia has developed and customised a clinical chemistry system that will be marketed by Sysmex globally. During the six-year contract period, the companies expect total sales to be around Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion). The global market for such analysers is in excess Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion).