Sunshine Holdings and Akbar Brothers merge healthcare biz

Sunshine Healthcare Managing Director Shyam Sathasivam, Sunshine Holdings Deputy Chairman Amal Cabraal and Akbar Brothers Directors Asgi Akbarally and Shiraz Akbarally exchanging agreements yesterday  

• Create SL’s first fully-integrated healthcare company
• Akbar Brothers acquires 28% of combined healthcare business

Sri Lanka’s diversified conglomerate Sunshine Holdings PLC yesterday announced the merger of its healthcare business consisting of Sunshine Healthcare Lanka and Healthguard Pharmacy with the healthcare arm of Akbar Brothers, which consists of Akbar Pharmaceuticals, Lina Manufacturing and Lina Spiro.

The strategic merger will create Sri Lanka’s first fully-integrated healthcare company starting from manufacturing up to retailing of healthcare products, including last-mile distribution across the country for all healthcare products, the companies said in a statement yesterday.

The company will be operating in all five segments of the healthcare supply chain, namely R&D, manufacturing, importation, distribution and retail.

This merger will also enhance the pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in the country with both leading business groups working together to invest in this critical national building sector. By combining their strengths, the merged healthcare business will be able to build further manufacturing capacity as well as develop and scale up production of existing and new molecules, work with regional pharma companies to drive tech transfers and overall increase the local production of medicines as envisaged by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’ manifesto. 

Sunshine Healthcare Lanka, established in 1967, is a leading market expansion services provider, with an extensive specialised healthcare team, offering a broad range of customised services from registration to importation, customs clearance and temperature-controlled storage, sales and marketing, warehousing and pharmacy distribution. 

Healthguard Pharmacy Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of SHL, has established a network of 22 pharmacies across Greater Colombo, offering a range of pharmaceuticals, wellness and beauty products that has set the benchmark in healthcare retailing in the country.

Lina Manufacturing is the Akbar group’s first pharma manufacturing venture with an operating history of 10 years. Together with the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, they have developed molecules which they supply significantly to the public sector through the Ministry of Health’s pharmaceutical buyback program. The company manufactures a range of respiratory pharmaceuticals and devices including Beclovent, Flutivent, Salbuvent, Prazolin, Winterpan and the award winning Ventohaler inhalers. 

Lina Spiro is the latest venture of Akbar Pharma which focuses on manufacturing the latest technology metered-dose inhalers which are for respiratory care and is the only such manufacturer in Sri Lanka certified to WHO-GMP standards, opening the door to international exports.