Actavis to divest Bulgarian manufacturing site

One of Actavis’ Bulgarian production facilities is being bought out by the management, which will provide contract manufacturing services to the generic maker and other companies.

The buy out will create a new company, Antibiotic-Razgrad AD, that has been set up by representatives of the existing management who believe they can improve the use of existing capacity.

Antibiotics in formulations including tablets, powder injections, sterile liquid forms, creams and unguents are manufactured at the site in Razgrad in north east Bulgaria.

Dimitar Papazov, managing director of Antibiotic-Razgrad AD, said: "This local-management buy-out provides the new owners with an excellent opportunity to leverage idle capacity at the Razgrad plant.

Antibiotic-Razgrad will be contract manufacturers for Actavis and fully intend to add more such contracts in the near future in order to improve cost and competitiveness. Our activities will remain closely linked to Actavis and we will continue to follow Actavis' best practices and high quality standards."

The deal suggests that Actavis had unused capacity at the Razgrad facility that the new company will utilise through additional manufacturing contracts.

Actavis will continue to manufacture products from its other two facilities in Bulgaria and at this time has no plans to divest these operations. Products manufactured at the three facilities are distributed in Bulgaria and throughout central and eastern Europe.

The deal is expected to be closed in the next two months. Financial details have not been disclosed.