About Ferrosan

Ferrosan is an international consumer healthcare and medical devices company.

Altor became the principal shareholder of Ferrosan in February 2005. Idosan, controlled by Ferrosan's previous majority shareholder Sonnich Fryland, remains a substantial minority shareholder. Headquartered in Denmark, Ferrosan has production facilities in Denmark and Romania and is represented in more than 70 countries with focus on the Nordic region and Eastern Europe. Products include vitamins, OTC pharmaceuticals, food supplements, lifestyle products as well as haemostatics and implantable devices. Key brands include Imedeen®, Multi-tabs®, Zinaxin®, Strix®, Idoform® and FriFlyt®.

Altor was attracted by the strong position within the pharmacy channel in the fragmented Nordic OTC health care market and developable positions in Easter Europe, primarily Russia. Furthermore, the industry growth is driven by overall demographic development, Nordic under penetration of OTC share of overall pharma consumption and rapid growth of health care in Eastern Europe.

Altor’s investment thesis was based on opportunities identified and to be realized together with the management team of Ferrosan. These include accelerated growth organically through broadening of the product portfolio, in-licensing, geographic expansion as well as through strategic acquisitions. Synergies from consolidating the industry where recognized, including cost savings in distribution and cross selling of products through existing distribution channels. In addition, several opportunities to improve the company’s efficiency where identified, such as increased focus on separate business areas with overhead and sales subsidiary rationalisation, product offering complexity reduction and manufacturing set-up optimization.