TGS Baltic and Sweden's Hammarskiold & Co law firm advised UAB Euroapotheca, a Baltic and CEE pharmacy retail and wholesale group, on its purchase of Swedish pharmacy chain Apoteksgruppen from the Kingdom of Sweden. The seller was advised by the Lindahl and Cederquist law firms.
The value of the transaction was over EUR 171 million.
TGS Baltic describes the transaction — which is valued at over EUR 171 million — as "the biggest ever Lithuanian investment into the Swedish market," and reports that it "considerably expands business relations not only between Lithuania and Sweden, but also between the CEE and the North European regions, forming one of the leading pharmacy chains in the Northern and Eastern Europe."
In addition, according to TGS Baltic, the transaction was especially complex, as it consisted of two parallel processes: (1) the acquisition of Apoteksgruppen Holding Sverige AB, a state-owned central franchise holder; and (2) the acquisition of shares in approximately 130 private pharmacy companies owned by over 100 different private entrepreneurs. Both the sale processes were carried out in parallel by different investment bankers within one month of each other.
Euroapotheca is holding retail pharmacy chains and pharmaceuticals wholesalers in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, and Ukraine. The group currently has 454 pharmacies with consolidated revenue of EUR 353 million and employ almost 3,000 staff members servicing over 30 million customers each year. After the closing of the transaction, Euroapotheca will have over 600 pharmacies, the turnover of which will amount to EUR 750 million.
TGS Baltic Partner Marius Matonis was advisor to Euroapotheca in the process.
