Manufacturing  February 18, 2016

Huvepharma completes acquisition of Zoetis operations in Longmont

LONGMONT — Bulgarian pharmaceutical company Huvepharma closed this month on the acquisition of a Zoetis facility in Longmont that makes animal-health products for livestock, including poultry, swine and cattle.

The deal became official Friday, with Huvepharma — which has its U.S. headquarters in Peachtree City, Ga. — taking over operations of the Longmont facility and ownership of the products made there. Huvepharma Inc. chief financial officer Darius Gazinschi said all 16 Zoetis employees in Longmont became Huvepharma employees.

The sale was part of a larger deal that saw Huvepharma also buy a Zoetis manufacturing facility in North Carolina and assume the assets, operations and lease of a Zoetis manufacturing and distribution site in Arkansas. New Jersey-based Zoetis (NYSE: ZTS) disclosed in a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the company would receive $40 million in “cash and additional considerations” in the deal.

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Included in that price was the $3.5 million real estate purchase of Zoetis’ Longmont facility at 1301 Iowa Ave., which according to Boulder County property records is a roughly 65,000-square-foot building constructed in 1973.

Huvepharma is a 15-year-old company that develops, makes and sells both human and animal-health products. The privately held company doesn’t disclose revenue. It has five manufacturing facilities in the United States in addition to the Georgia location.

Gazinschi characterized the Longmont purchase as a growth acquisition that adds to Huvepharma’s portfolio of products rather than overlaps. While he didn’t indicate that the company would be adding staff at the Longmont facility in the immediate future, he said Huvepharma has been growing in general in the United States. He said no changes are planned for the Longmont site.

“We need to have this facility continue to produce for us,” Gazinschi said. “Those are our immediate plans.”

For Zoetis, the sale was part of an ongoing “operational efficiency” plan launched by the company last year to simplify and streamline the company. As part of that plan, the company is divesting certain assets and closing other facilities. The recent SEC filing noted that the company is divesting lower-revenue, lower-margin products to help improve profitability.

Zoetis formed in 2013 out of a spinoff of Pfizer’s Animal Health division. The Longmont facility had been an Alpharma site before Pfizer acquired Alpharma in 2011.

LONGMONT — Bulgarian pharmaceutical company Huvepharma closed this month on the acquisition of a Zoetis facility in Longmont that makes animal-health products for livestock, including poultry, swine and cattle.

The deal became official Friday, with Huvepharma — which has its U.S. headquarters in Peachtree City, Ga. — taking over operations of the Longmont facility and ownership of the products made there. Huvepharma Inc. chief financial officer Darius Gazinschi said all 16 Zoetis employees in Longmont became Huvepharma employees.

The sale was part of a larger deal that saw Huvepharma also buy a Zoetis manufacturing facility in North Carolina and assume the assets,…

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