Warburg & CITIC Funds China Pharmaceuticals

Filed in archive Private Equity on November 9, 2005

Global private equity investor, Warburg Pincus and
CITIC Capital Markets are bullish about the future of Chinese pharmaceuticals. Each recently bought a 22.5 percent stake in Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Holding Co Ltd, the parent of Harbin Pharmaceutical group Co Ltd.

Miao Yu, an official with the Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Co revealed that the previously wholly-state-owned Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Holding also sold a 10 percent stake to Chenneng Investment, a local venture capital firm located in Harbin, which is in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.

According to The Hong Kong-based Standard newspaper, Warburg Pincus and CITIC Capital Markets Holdings borrowed $282 million from Citigroup to fund the equity stake.

The municipal government of Harbin holds the remaining 45 percent stake in the pharmaceutical group.

Harbin Pharmaceutical makes more than 700 products, including antibiotics, one of the more lucrative sectors of China's pharmaceutical industry because they carry a high price tag for consumers but are relatively cheap to produce.

The company also specializes in biopharmaceuticals, or medicines that use biological agents such as recombinant DNA in the manufacturing process instead of the chemical synthesis used for more traditional medicines.

The company is also one of the primary manufacturers of traditional Chinese medicines and has one of the largest distribution networks in the mainland.