Euroapotheca expands pharmacy business in Estonia to acquire Ülikooli Apteek from Finland‘s Helsinki University
Euroapteek OÜ, the subsidiary of Euroapotheca group, has signed an agreement with Finnish state company Yliopiston Apteekki OY to acquire Ülikooli Apteek pharmacy chain in Estonia. After completion of the transaction, Euroapteek will buy and integrate 13 Ülikooli Apteek pharmacies and is ready to to provide all franchise services to 11 pharmacies that work under Ülikooli Apteek brand name.
As a parallel deal, Euroapotheca group’s wholesale company Baltfarma OÜ has signed the agreement to acquire Yliopiston Apteekki OY owned wholesale business company Medapta OÜ.
“Both acquisitions of Apoteksgruppen in Sweden and Ülikooli Apteek in Estonia are a part of our consecutive strategy to become the leading pharmacy market player in the region of Northern Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. Having the acquisitions completed we will continue to look for opportunities at our current and new markets”, says Raimonda Kižienė, CEO and Chair of Euroapotheca group.
“The reason for the sale is that our current market share in Estonia is not optimal for the future. As part of Euroapotheca group our pharmacy chain will more than double its size in Estonia and have excellent possibilities to operate effectively and serve customers even better in the future”, says Jukka Niemi, CEO of Yliopiston Apteekki Group.
Euroapteek OÜ is ready to fully support all franchisee pharmacies. As of end January, the Euroapteek network includes 49 pharmacies. A total of 24 pharmacies in Estonia operate under the brand Ülikooli Apteek. After completion of the acquisition the overall Euroapteek network consist of 73 pharmacies, of which 54 owned by Euroapteek OÜ and 19 operating under franchise agreement.
The transaction is subject to the approval of the Estonian Competition Authority. The parties have agreed not to disclose the financial terms of the transaction.
In November 2017, Euroapotheca group signed an agreement with the Kingdom of Sweden and private investors to acquire 159 Apoteksgruppen pharmacies and to continue provide franchise services to remaining 30 independent pharmacies which will continue to work under Apoteksgruppen brand name.
Euroapotheca group currently has a network of over 450 pharmacies in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Ukraine.
Additional information
For more information, please contact:
Arvydas Žilinskas
Head of Corporate Affairs
EUROAPOTHECA, UAB
Mob. + 370 687 04052
E-mail [email protected]
www.euroapotheca.lt
About Euroapotheca
Euroapotheca was established in 1998 and today runs 454 pharmacies, which are owned by the company as well as by franchisees. In total, the company employs more than almost 3000 people and every year its pharmacies serve more than 30 million customers in the Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine.
The company is part of Vilniaus Prekyba, the largest retail trade group in the Baltic and CEE region. Vilniaus Prekyba has annual turnover of EUR 3.25 bn (2016) and employs 36 000 people.
For more information about Euroapotheca and Vilniaus Prekyba, please visit our websites: http://www.euroapotheca.lt/en/ and http://www.vilniausprekyba.eu/en/