May & Baker Nigeria Plc is in talks with foreign investors and venture capitalists, who have expressed interest in acquiring an equity stake in the company, our correspondent has gathered.
The interest, it was learnt, followed the completion of a major stage of its World Health Organisation certification and pre-qualification process with the issuance of the WHO current General Manufacturing Practice certification to the company.
According to the company, it is currently in the process of completing the pre-qualification of its products from its manufacturing complex at Ota, Ogun State.
The Managing Director, May & Baker Nigeria, Mr. Nnamdi Okafor, confirmed the preliminary expression of interests and discussions with the foreign investors and venture capitalists in a statement by the company.
According to him, the company will consider strategic partnership that can provide additional technical competence and funding that can boost the company’s operations, leading to greater returns for investors.
He explained that although there had been a lot of interests in the company from foreign and Nigerian investors, the company would accept arrangements that would protect the interests of the existing shareholders and create substantial future values for all stakeholders.
“We are talking to the major shareholders to feel their pulse and see when they will be ready to take their rights and we are also talking to some foreign investors, especially those that will also bring some technical competence and skill, and I think within this year we should be able to strike a good balance that will ensure that everybody is taken care of in a fair way,” Okafor was quoted as saying.
He gave the assurance that the company would make sure it avoided a situation where the foreign investors would only use the Nigerian investment as a cover for their global trading activities rather than value-added relationship that transfers competence, skill and technology to the Nigerian affiliate.
The May & Baker Nigeria MD called on the Federal Government to review its Foreign Direct Investment policies to ensure that such investments transfer values to the Nigerian affiliates through domestic manufacturing and technical know-how.
He said, “Some companies want to come in and have the Nigerian partners; manufacture in factories overseas and ship to Nigeria, and use you as an established name in the country to ride the market, establish their plants and take over the market.
“So, we are being mindful of that and we are looking for partners that truly want the long-term partnership with us who want to transfer or to share technology, so we are open to that. It is something that we will be very glad to conclude as soon as possible.”
He also called for industry-based intervention and support fund for the Nigerian pharmaceutical industry, stressing that the strategic importance of the sector and opportunities for global relevance and foreign earnings justify such support.
He said, “For the past two years, we have been talking about the N200bn intervention fund; that has never happened, we have been pushing it but we have not got anything out of it. We believe it is very important for our industry especially as we are upgrading. We believe that for us to compete with our Asian counterparts, we need access to long-term funding.”
Punch
