Latham Advises Sistema on its Acquisition of a Majority Stake in Two Pharmaceutical Plants

Sistema PJSFC, a publicly traded diversified Russian holding company, has announced that is has completed the acquisition, together with a financial partner, of a 46.5% equity stake in Sintez Kurganskoe Medical Products Company (Sintez) and a 75.1% equity stake in Biocom, through holding company Sinocom Investments Limited (Sinocom), from investment firm Marathon Group for a consideration of RUB11.8 billion. 

Sintez and Biocom — together with Alium, a pharmaceutical company being created by Sistema through the merger of OBL Pharm and Binnopharm — will be a major market player, with the potential to become a top-three Russian pharmaceutical company in the commercial segment. The combined product portfolio of Sintez, Biocom, and Alium will include more than 500 products, and its manufacturing capacity will consist of six production facilities in Moscow, the Moscow region, Kurgan, and Stavropol. 

Latham & Watkins advised Sistema in the transaction with a Moscow team led by corporate partner Olga Ponomarenko with associates Timur Bayramov, Oksana Uberwolf, and Bairas Magadeev, and London associate Yana Nastyushenko. 

A Moscow-led team previously advised Sistema on the sale of a stake in OBL Pharm to an investment consortium comprising the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the Russia-China Investment Fund, and leading Middle Eastern funds.