Bourse d’Alger’s regulator just approved Bioharm Spa’s listing document to stock exchange. A release from Commission d’Organisation et de Surveillance des opérations de Bourse (COSOB) revealed that the firm will be listing through a public sales offer of 5.10 million shares that represent 20% of its capital.

Each share goes for 1,225 Algerian dinars, for public, and 1,102.5 Algerian dinars for the company’s employees, all totaling an amount of 6.25 billion dinars ($58.12 million). Subscription starts on January 18 and ends on January 28. Following this transaction, the shares of the group will be listed.

Active since 1992, Biopharm Spa is the leader on Algeria’s pharmaceutical market. Employing about 1700 people, it generated in 2013 a turnover of 366 million dollars for a net profit of 29.3 million dollars, IIboursa reveals.

The reasons behind the listing were so far not clearly disclosed by the COSOB. A first opening occurred in 2013 when the company sold 49% of its capital to a consortium comprised of Development Partners International (DPI), Mediterrània Capital, and German development agency DEG.

In October 2015, executives from the group announced that a joint-venture had been established with CIPLA, India’s second drug producer, in the framework of an investment project worth $15 million. What is left to know now is who the assignors behind the listing are.

Idriss Linge