Alliance Unichem Poses Threat To Gehe's Position

UK-based group Unichem has reached agreement on a proposed merger withFrance's Alliance Sante to form Alliance Unichem, subject to shareholder approval, thus potentially creating the biggest European drug wholesalers group after Germany's Gehe.

Close To L5 Billion Turnover The merger would make the new company the largest drugs wholesaler in the UK, Italy and Portugal, and the second largest in France. Alliance Unichem would also have significant market share in Morocco, Spain and Greece, creating a group with expected pretax profits for 1997 of some L102 million ($172 million), with a pro forma turnover in the region of L4.98 billion.

More interestingly, both the merged companies have been part of IPSO, a consortium of eight major pharmaceutical wholesalers, including Sanacorp and Anzag, the third largest German wholesaler, in which Unichem has an 8% stake. Indeed, some industry analysts argue that the merger may indicate that IPSO will be poised to challenge Gehe's pre-eminent position.