Pharmacy Daily | Sigma buys DDS for $26m

SIGMA Pharmaceuticals Limited has bought Discount Drug Stores (DDS) for $26.7m (PD breaking news yesterday). The move adds 121 pharmacies to Sigma’s network, which would remain DDS branded, a Sigma spokesperson said. DDS would sit within Sigma’s Central Healthcare Services (CHS), which had itself been acquired earlier in the year and which operated as a stand-alone business, Sigma said. The spokesperson said this was because Sigma wanted DDS to be run as a stand-alone business also, and because DDS and CHS had been in discussions about a similar prospect prior to Sigma’s acquisition of CHS. Sigma said DDS had a “strong pipeline of growth”, which the spokesperson confirmed meant more pharmacies were planned. DDS executive director John Clark said the group had a goal of being in the top three retail pharmacy brands in the country. Sigma said the combination of additional wholesale business over time, CHS hospital and retail distribution business and the expanded network of branded pharmacy member was expected to contribute more than $400m in sales revenue to Sigma and Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) of between $8m to $10m in the first year of operation. The acquisition was immediately earnings accretive and was expected to be ROIC accretive in the first year of operations, it said. CLICK HERE for more.

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