Ping An Insurance buying 10 pct stake in Japan drugmaker Tsumura for $244 mln

TSUMURA & CO.

22/09/2017 10:36

TOKYO, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Japanese drugmaker Tsumura & Co 
 4540.T  said on Friday Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd 
 601318.SS   2318.HK  will become its biggest shareholder by 
acquiring a 10 percent stake for 27.3 billion yen ($243.7 
million). 
    Tsumura is well known in Japan as a prescription drugmaker 
specialised in "kampo" herbal medicine, which traces its roots 
back to China.  
    In a statement, Tsumura, which has annual revenue of about 
$980 million, said it will place newly issued shares and 
treasury stock to Ping An for 3,559.5 yen a share, a 9.4 percent 
discount to Friday's closing price. 
    The deal is set to close on Oct. 13, the company said. 
    Tsumura said the two companies are planning to set up joint 
ventures in procurement of herbal medicine materials, production 
and sales of traditional Chinese medicine in China. 
    The Japanese company said it relies on imports from China 
for about 80 percent of herbal medicine materials, and that 
securing stable procurement is becoming critical as growing 
demand for kampo and Chinese medicine have driven up prices of 
herbal materials.   
($1 = 112.0300 yen) 
 
 (Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Muralikumar 
Anantharaman) 
 ((taiga.uranaka@thomsonreuters.com; +81-3-6441-1813; Reuters 
Messaging:  taiga.uranaka.reuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: PING AN INS TSUMURA/