After major negotiations between Sanofi and the State, the most consumed French drug will come under the control of an American fund. Monday October 21, the French pharmaceutical group Sanofi formalized its choice to sell 50% of Opella, its non-prescription consumer medicines subsidiary, parent company of Doliprane but also of vitamins and food supplements, to the American fund CD&R.
Present in France discreetly since 2004, this specialist in investment in unlisted companies will now be the owner of the French company Opella, whose value reaches some 16 billion euros and which owns 115 brands around the world. Sanofi will remain a shareholder with around 48%, while the French public investment bank Bpifrance should acquire a stake in Opella with 1 to 2%, “to ensure the French anchoring of strategic assets” and keep a path at the table of the board of directors, as its director Nicolas Dufourcq clarified.
Following strikes launched by Opella employees on several production sites, a “compromise” was reached by Sanofi and the State in order to reach commitments accompanied by penalties, to guarantee supply to the French market and the preservation of jobs on national sites, but also the maintenance of the two French production sites of Opella in Lisieux (Calvados) and Compiègne (Oise), for at least five years.
CD&R still has major international projects for the parent company of Doliprane. In a press release published Monday, the fund believes that “there are significant opportunities to strengthen Opella’s leadership and accelerate its growth”, in order to “create a global French champion in consumer health”, according to Eric Rouzier , its head of the European Health division.
The “Rolls Royce” of private equity
Created in 1978, CD&R – the initials of its founders Clayton, Dubilier and Rice – is one of the pioneers of private equity, which consists of investing in companies that are not listed on the stock exchange, to support their development over several years, then resell them at a capital gain. Unknown to the general public in France, the fund has invested since its creation in more than 110 companies in North America and Europe, mainly in the industrial, financial services, health, distribution and technology sectors. .
Its very first investment in France dates from 2004, in Rexel, the specialist in the distribution of electrical equipment. It was also that same year that the fund bought – from the French group Veolia – Culligan, an American water treatment subsidiary. Other investments in French companies will follow, in the services company Spie, the inspection group Socotec and also Mobilux, parent company of the furniture brands But and Conforama. The fund remained in the capital of Rexel for nine years and in that of Spie for eight years. He has been present since 2019 at Socotec and since 2016 at Mobilux, a period significantly longer than that practiced on average in the private equity sector. Which has earned it a flattering reputation within private equity.
If on this side of the Atlantic, their three names are almost unknown, the co-founders of CD&R have built with engineering methods “the Rolls Royce” of private equity in the United States, in the opinion of their own competitors, as pointed out Les Echos. Considered “old style” but respected in the industry, CD&R focuses on smaller asset portfolios than its American counterparts: forty-six years after its founding, CD&R manages a little more than 57 billion, where KKR manages more 600 billion, and Blackstone, launched seven years later, crossed 1,000 billion dollars.