The local arm of privately owned Greek pharmaceuticals giant, the Genepharm Group, Deacons said Genepharm Australasia’s shares began trading on 10 June at a premium of more than 30 per cent to their issue price and finished their first trading day strongly, 18 per cent above the issue price.

Genepharm Australasia is a specialist pharmaceutical company that will develop, market and distribute a “premium range” of generic pharmaceuticals throughout Australia and NZ. These will include some of the newest and highest-value Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) products. The company also plans to expand into Asia.

The funds raised from the IPO will be spent to register up to 50 generic drugs, including a number of those that are funded by the PBS and will be released from patent protection by 2008.

Deacons Melbourne corporate and commercial partners Rod Lyle and Bernard O’Shea and senior associate Stephen Blank led the Deacons team.

They worked closely with Genepharm CEO Dennis Bastas and CFO Kip Harding, Ernst&Young and lead manager/underwriter ABN AMRO Morgans, to bring about the listing within three months of receiving initial instructions.

During due diligence, several members of the transaction team visited the Genepharm Group head office and manufacturing plant in Athens.

“The Genepharm offering was underpinned by the group’s commitment to global expansion,” Rod Lyle said.

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“We were impressed with the operations and manufacturing capabilities demonstrated by the Genepharm Group in Greece and we look forward to assisting Genepharm Australasia with growing its business in Australia and NZ and expansion into Asia.”

According to Deacons, Genepharm has plans to become a major player in Australia’s generic drugs market.

At close of trading on the day of Genepharm’s ASX debut, the company’s market capitalisation was approximately $45 million.