Register now for Fin24 Dashboard and get access to portfolios, watchlists, financial comparison tools, and a whole lot more to help you achieve your financial goals.

Data provided by McGregor BFA
All data is delayed
Loading...
Where am I? Home
 
Prices are delayed by 15min.
Join the Fin24.com conversation about JSE-listed stock by using every time you tweet.

New plan to help SA firms compete

Mar 11 2010 08:09 Jean-Marie de Waal

Company Data

Aspen [JSE : APN]

Last traded R100.60
Change R-0.57
% Change -0.56%
Cumulative volume 779,310
Market cap R43.92bn

Last Updated: 10/02/2012 at 19:33. Prices are delayed by 15 minutes. Source: McGregor BFA

 

Related Articles

SA wants Chinese help for hub

Davies unveils industrial plan

Aspen seeks Africa, LatAm deals

SA drives Aspen growth

Aspen in TB deal with Eli Lilly

Aids drugs boost Aspen

 

Top Stories

Rand tumbles on jittery euro

Feb 10 2012 18:19

The rand tumbled against the dollar in late afternoon trade as the local currency tracked a jittery euro.

Zuma to make 'important' announcement

Feb 10 2012 17:28

President Jacob Zuma will make an announcement "of national importance" on Saturday, says a central bank statement.

Greek deal limbo weighs on markets

Feb 10 2012 16:39

Stock markets fell after Greece's crucial international bailout was put on hold by its partners in the 17-nation eurozone.

 
Share Share line Print

Cape Town - Aspen [JSE:APN] Pharmacare , South Africa's biggest pharmaceutical company, says the latest Industrial Policy Action Plan could help South African companies compete better with Indian businesses for state tenders.

India has overtaken Germany as the biggest exporter of pharmaceutical products to South Africa, says Stavros Nicolaou, an executive director at Aspen Pharmacare. On Wednesday he made a presentation to the Portfolio Committee for Trade and Industry on this Industrial Policy Action Plan.

The plan provides for South African companies to have the opportunity to match a foreign competitor's tender price if the foreign company's price is lower.

He said that only 47% of the R4.4bn total tender value for the pharmaceutical industry is awarded locally.

Aspen supplies about 70% of the state's oral contraceptive medicines, but in November the company lost a government tender for some 8m package of these pills to a "subsidised" Indian company on the basis of price.

For Triphasil tablets (28) the Indian company was 51c cheaper per package and for Nordette (28) it was 64c cheaper per package.

Nicolaou says National Treasury may save almost R3m, but the cost to the economy, in terms of retrenchments that Aspen is considering at its East London factory, involves a direct loss of R10m.

If the proposed plan had already been in operation, and Aspen had been able to match the tender price, this difference could have been taken off its margins, Nicolaou explained.

He said the industry is excited about this provision, but National Treasury is concerned that it may not be constitutional. Legal opinion indicates that it would not be unconstitutional, Nicolaou reckons.

In two weeks' time a decision will be made on a major tender for possibly 10m packages of antiretrovirals. This could be lost to the local industry simply because a foreign company is 15c cheaper per package.

- Sake24.com

For business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.

 
 
Comment on this story
0 comments
Add your comment
Comment 0 characters remaining
Facebook still a closed book in China
Feb 08 2012 16:59

Mark Zuckerberg wants to ''friend'' China's massive market but how far is he prepared to go, and against what competition?

Attie

Whilst doing my regular book browsing at Exclusive Books just before Christmas 2011 a book with the simple title “My Book” caught my eye. Paging through the book I saw nothing else but wild life photographs with accompanying quotations by either the author or another well-known person. ... Read their blog...

Recently updated
Podcasts
The Sishen saga

Legal expert Peter Leon on the increasingly complex legal wrangle over the Sishen Iron Ore mine. Time: 8:17 Listen Here...

Before you list

Is the clarion call of the JSE calling? Listen to Fin24’s expert panel discussion before you list your small business. Time: 17:29

Compare and Buy

Compare and apply for hundreds of financial products from many suppliers.

Credit cards Medical aid Current accounts Think Money

Money Clinic

Money Clinic Do you have a question about your finances? We'll get an expert opinion.
Click here...

Loading...