Piramal Enterprises' Consumer Products Division has entered into an agreement to acquire four brands from Pfizer Limited for a consideration of Rs 110 crores. The acquisition includes brands namely: Ferradol, Neko, Sloan's and Waterbury's Compound. Additionally the agreement also includes the trademark rights for Ferradol and Waterbury's Compound in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

These brands hold a rich legacy and have a high consumer pull and are available in India for the past 30+ years

• Ferradol launched in 1982, is a leading nutritional supplement for children and adults.
• Neko launched in 1967, is a medicated soap indicated for body odor and minor skin infections.
• Sloan's launched in 1982, is muscular pain reliever that is available in balm and liniment forms.
• Waterbury's Compound launched in 1970, is used for building Cough and Cold immunity.

These products currently operate in a market which is currently estimated at Rs 7000 Cr.

Completion of the deal is subject to certain conditions including regulatory approvals.

Ms Nandini Piramal, executive director, Piramal Enterprises said, "Our aim is to be a significant player in every business under the Healthcare vertical of Piramal Enterprises Limited. We are one of the large Custom Manufacturing Companies and have manufacturing bases in North America, European Union and Asia. Our Critical Care business is the third largest player in the Global Inhalation Anesthesia market. The Consumer Products Division of the company currently ranks 7th in India; but we aim to be a Top 3 player in the OTC market by 2020. Acquisition is one of the important routes to help us achieve our goal and in the last 6 months we have done two acquisitions in the Consumer Products business. The first one was the Littles baby care range of brands and second was the gastro-intestinal portfolio of brands from MSD. We believe these brands from Pfizer will fit our portfolio and also strategically help us move closer towards our stated objective. The combination of growing our existing core brands and strategically acquiring accretive brands has helped us create a unique business which has a powerful portfolio of OTC brands in India."

Mr Kedar Rajadnye, COO - Consumer Products Division, Piramal Enterprises said, "Our success and expertise in building and acquiring brands across categories is our strength. Most of the brands in our portfolio viz Saridon, Ipill, Lacto Calamine, Tetmosol and Caladryl have strong consumer franchise and are leading players in their respective categories. We currently have 6 of our brands in the top 100 OTC brands of India. We have proven strength in marketing and also in chemist distribution where we have a strong footprint which covers all the 20,000 population towns across the country. We expect these brands to leverage the strong sales and distribution capability that we have built over the years and help us improve our profitability margins as there will be higher fixed cost absorption. These four powerful heritage brands have a huge potential to become power brands in their respective categories."