Sources inform ''Globes'' that the Super-Pharm chain is about to acquire the New-Pharm and April chain for $20 million.
Three retail concerns showed an interest in acquiring New-Pharm and April: Super Sol (NYSE: SAE), Hamashbir Lazarchan, which is interested only in April, and Super-Pharm, which is willing to buy New-Pharm and April as synergetic entities.
Super Sol offered $13 million for the chain, and it can reasonably be assumed that the deal will be closed with Super-Pharm.
The higher offer by Super-Pharm probably shows that the purchase is more worth its while than the others in the market, particularly Super-Sol, since the acuisition would enable Super-Pharm to raise prices. Another possibility is that acquiring New-Pharm and April would give Super-Pharm efficiency and savings, since the two companies have similar operations.
New-Pharm and April are owned by co-op chain Metro (95%) and April founder Ran Gotfried (5%), who until a year ago was general manager of both chains.
If South-African Metro sells New-Pharm and April to Super-Pharm, the Dankner group will pay $66 million for the deal, less than New-Pharm and April's overall value of $72 million. The Dankner group is about to acquire Club-Market from Metro.
Leon Koffler-owned Super-Pharm's sales turnover is valued at NIS 2 billion. There are 90 branches throughout the country.
New-Pharm's sales turnover totals NIS 400 million, while April has a NIS 100 million sales turnover. New-Pharm has 35 branches, while April has 20.
Antitrust Authority director general Dror Strum is expected to approve the merger between Super-Pharm and New-Pharm and April, despite concern about damage to competition, since they are similar and offer the same product basket, including pharmaceuticals, toiletries, detergents and cosmetics.
Strum is expected to prefer to approve the merger over the chain's sale to Super-Sol. This follows increased complaints by suppliers against Super-Sol's monopolistic behavior. Furthermore, Super-Sol offers 80% of the products sold by Super-Pharm and New-Pharm.
The key question is whether the drugstore sector, in which Super-Pharm has a 40% market share, should be viewed as a separate sector or as part of a larger retail chain sector.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 29 August, 2001