What will happen to doliprane? While Servier gave up on selling Biogaran at the beginning of September, the project to sell Opella, Sanofi’s healthcare subsidiary, which notably houses the iconic little yellow box, is still underway. Following the first indicative offers submitted in July, the takeover candidates had until 23 September to submit their firm takeover bids.
Sanofi announced its intention to divest from Opella in October 2023. The French pharmaceutical group’s over-the-counter drug and food supplements subsidiary, which markets around a hundred products (Doliprane, Lysopaïne, Maalox, Dulcolax, Novanuit, etc.) worldwide and has a turnover of around 5.2 billion euros, had since aroused great interest from investors. Following the withdrawal of the Advent investment fund, which was among the favourites in the auction, during the summer, only two candidates remained in the running on Monday evening.
Among them is the American investment fund Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R). Known in France for its stakes in Conforama, Rexel and the engineering group Spie, the latter is seeking to develop Sanofi’s consumer health division into a French champion of the sector, says a source familiar with the matter. The New York investment company, which raised $26 billion last year (23.4 billion euros), has the advantage of having a strong financing capacity. Enough to allow it to make a takeover offer without any problem.
A French solution preferred by the executive
On the other hand, the French investment fund PAI Partners, the other contender for the acquisition of Opella, which is less financially equipped than its rival, would be forced to turn to partners. According to Bloomberg, Emirati and Singaporean funds have been requested to support the French company’s bid. PAI Partners, which includes the Tropicana and Häagen-Dazs brands in its portfolio, as well as the Interflora and Grand Frais brands, benefits, for its part, from a strong local anchor, since half of its transactions concern Hexagon. It also has another argument in the battle: its French passport.
The sale of Opella is certainly less sensitive, in terms of preserving health sovereignty, than that of Biogaran. Opella would only have four drugs considered strategic by the government, unlike the subsidiary Servier, which was responsible for the entire product portfolio. However, its transfer remains under special surveillance by the State, in particular because of Doliprane, the most widely consumed drug in France in terms of volume, whose transfer under a foreign flag would symbolically cause a stain.
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