The "barrier-free" mode of mergers and acquisitions is here, and new openings and cancellations are handled simultaneously

M&A and restructuring have become the most obvious feature of the current pharmaceutical retail market.
During this process, how to replace the pharmacy business license has become one of the most "headache" issues for many mergers and acquisitions
.
Recently, in order to further promote the development of Changzhou pharmaceutical retail chain enterprises and improve the scale, intensification, and standardization of chain enterprises, Changzhou has optimized the method of simplifying the handling process in response to the difficulties in obtaining licenses for pharmacies in the process of mergers and acquisitions
.
Three steps.
It is understood that when Changzhou pharmaceutical retail chain companies acquired single stores, they had to cancel the drug business license of the acquired pharmacy before applying for a new license.
This caused a lot of unnecessary troubles for the pharmacy.
, The old license is cancelled and the new license cannot be operated during the gap period
.
Therefore, some chain pharmacies have proposed whether the cancellation of the original "Drug Business License" and the reopening of the drugstore can be processed at the same time to minimize the impact on the daily operation of the pharmacy during the merger and reorganization
.
Changzhou organizes relevant departments to conduct serious investigations, study specific optimization and simplification of the handling process, and based on the actual situation, formulated a three-step drug business license work: The first step is to allow companies to not cancel the business license of the original pharmacy, and the company is issuing a commitment In the case of a certificate, first apply for the business license of the retail chain store to be opened; the second step is that the administrative approval department can first accept the new license without canceling the original license, and review the application materials.
If it meets the requirements, start On-site verification procedures; The third step is to pass the on-site verification of the newly opened retail chain pharmacies, and simultaneously enter the follow-up process for the cancellation of the old license and the new license, and at the same time, the cancellation publicity and the office application are issued to ensure that the original license is cancelled and the new license is obtained within the same day After obtaining the new license, the enterprise shall process the cancellation of the original business license in a timely manner
.
Through reorganizing the licensing procedures and re-optimizing the licensing procedures, the "three-step approach" has changed the old model of closing and reopening stores in the past, opening up a new "barrier-free" model of simultaneous cancellation of new offices, and realizing the merger and reorganization of pharmaceutical retail chain enterprises Seamless docking of non-stop operation in China
.
It is understood that the "three-step" model has helped a group of chain companies such as Wanren Pharmacy and Neptune Xingchen Health Pharmacy to merge and reorganize more than 100 pharmacies, solving the urgent needs of the company
.
Support and encouragement From the perspective of the industry's top-level design, increasing industry concentration and intensive development are the direction of policy guidance.
From the perspective of local authorities, the attitude of support and encouragement to mergers and acquisitions and reorganizations
.
Previously, the Hubei Provincial Drug Administration responded to Yifeng’s “Application for Cross-Administrative Regional Mergers and Acquisitions of Other Retail Chain Enterprises to Apply for the Issuance of Business Licenses”: Cross-provincial or intra-provincial drug retail chain enterprises merge and reorganize other provinces Pharmaceutical retail chain enterprises may cancel the "Pharmaceutical Business License" of the acquired pharmaceutical retail chain enterprises
.
The merged drug retail chain enterprise may no longer retain the original drug distribution center, and the headquarters of the current drug retail chain enterprise shall conduct unified management of drug storage and distribution; at the same time, if the drug business address and licensing conditions have not actually changed, the on-site inspection may not be performed
.
At present, just as the opening of pharmacies is becoming more and more convenient, the mergers and acquisitions of pharmacies are becoming more and more simplified, especially under the continuous promotion of policies, there will be fewer and fewer "restrictions" on mergers and acquisitions in some places
.
The "Guiding Opinions of the Ministry of Commerce on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Pharmaceutical Distribution Industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan" recently issued by the Ministry of Commerce mentioned that by 2025, 5-10 specialized and diversified companies with a value of over 50 billion yuan will be cultivated.
Pharmaceutical retail chain enterprises, the annual sales of the top 100 pharmaceutical retail companies account for more than 65% of the total pharmaceutical retail market, and the pharmaceutical retail chain rate is close to 70%
.
In less than five years, one of the inevitable paths is to cultivate and form a group of leading companies with a chain rate of 70%
.
From the disclosed performance of the listed chains in the first three quarters, it can be seen that the number of stores in the four listed chains of Yixintang, Dashenlin, Laobai, and Yifeng Pharmacy are relatively close, and Yixintang and Laobai are in the first echelon and are competing for the first place; The total number of stores of Yifeng Pharmacy and Dashenlin also crossed the threshold of 7,000
.
Coupled with the release of dividends in the retail market outside the hospital, the terminal reshuffle of "fast fish eat slow fish, big fish eat small fish" has been further accelerated
.
The industry generally believes that several major listed retail chain pharmacies have stepped up their efforts to "enclose the market".
Coupled with the influx of capital from various sources, the capital war for pharmacies may further intensify in the future.

.
With policy encouragement and market development trends, it will inevitably force pharmacies to continue to simplify, optimize, and normalize policies related to mergers and acquisitions and reorganization of pharmacies
.
Foreign investors are eyeing? Under the influence of the global new crown epidemic, global capital has turned more attention to the pharmaceutical retail industry.
The drama of mergers and acquisitions and reorganization is not only continuously staged in China, but foreign companies are frequently taking actions in this regard
.
Westfarmers, which has a market value of A$70 billion and owns brands such as Bunnings Warehouse, Officeworks, and Kmart, successfully acquired Priceline Pharmacy for A$760 million (RMB 3.
8 billion)
.
Wesfarmers confirmed on Monday that they had won a bidding war for Priceline pharmacies that lasted for several months and had signed an A$760 million agreement to acquire Priceline’s owner Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API)
.
In this way, Wesfarmers' control over the Australian retail industry will be strengthened again.
The existing network includes 350 Bunnings warehouses, approximately 170 Officeworks stores, 230 Kmart stores and 280 target stores, and an additional 450 will be added.
Priceline stores
.
In this regard, Wesfarmers boss Rob Scott said that this transaction is an excellent opportunity to enter Australia’s expanding health, healthcare and beauty industry.
“As we said before, Wesfarmers supports the community pharmacy model, including pharmacy ownership and positioning
.
” In the emerging market of India, in order to enter the healthcare sector, Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart recently stated that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a controlling stake in the online pharmacy startup SastaSundar
.
SastaSundar is headquartered in Kolkata, has partnerships with more than 490 pharmacies, and is valued at USD 125 million in a round of financing in 2019
.
Flipkart is currently valued at more than 37 billion U.
S.
dollars.
After the acquisition of SastaSundar, Flipkart's medical business will be named Flipkart Health+
.
It is understood that online pharmacies account for less than 5% of the Indian pharmaceutical market and have broad room for growth
.
Flipkart’s main competitor, Amazon India, and India’s largest retail chain, Reliance Retail, have already deployed online medicine
.
What's interesting is that CVC capital, known as the European PE giants and with assets under management of US$125 billion, has recently exclusively invested in Xi'an Yikang, the largest chain pharmacy chain in Northwest China
.
Like KKR, CVC also invested in a regional chain pharmacy, which is intriguing
.