Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Limited

CiplaQCIL's pharmaceutical manufacturing plant is located in Luzira, a neighborhood in Nakawa Division in south-eastern Kampala. The plant is approximately 9 kilometres (6 mi), by road, south-east of Kampala's central business district.[6] The coordinates of the plant are 0°18'17.0"N, 32°38'22.0"E (Latitude:0.304723; Longitude:32.639436).[7]

As of March 2019, the company's total assets were valued at USh287.561 billion (US$78.516 million), with shareholders' equity of USh168.310 billion (US$46 million).[8]

In 2004, Quality Chemicals Limited (QCL) convinced Indian drug maker Cipla to go into a joint venture with QCL and the government of Uganda to establish a pharmaceutical plant in Uganda. Ground was broken in 2005 and the factory was commissioned in 2007,[9] with capacity of 6 million pills daily.[10]

In 2009, TLG Capital, a London-based private equity company,[11] invested an undisclosed amount of money in the plant.[12] Later, CapitalWorks Investment Partners, a private equity firm based in South Africa, also became a shareholder in the plant.[13] In February 2010, the government of Uganda divested from the plant by selling its shares "at cost" to CiplaQCIL. The transaction was valued at US$5 million.[14]

In February 2011, the owners of the plant announced a US$40 million expansion of the production line to include increased production of antiretroviral and antimalarial medication. In April 2012, British media reported that CiplaQCIL was in the process of expanding its manufacturing capacity fourfold. The plant had received approval of its processes and products from the World Health Organization. The products were expected to be initially marketed in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.[14]

According to a 2012 published report, a second plant is being planned to be built next to the first plant, which would raise CiplaQCIL's manufacturing capacity to 18 million pills daily.[15]

As of April 2016, the company's products were marketed in Cameroon, Comoros, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.[16]

In February 2020, the factory passed the first of three stages, in qualification to supply medication to South Africa. At that time, the following countries were accepting shipments from the factory: (1) Tanzania (2) Namibia (3) Sierra Leone (4) Angola (5) Mozambique (6) Zambia (7) Rwanda and (8) Myanmar.[17] In March 2020 the company shipped 300,000 ARV does to South Africa. This was followed by another 150,000 doses in April 2020, to be followed by 150,000 doses every month thereafter. Rwanda, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Zambia are receiving regular shipments from CQCIL.[18]

As of April 2017, the shareholding in the pharmaceutical plant was as depicted in the table below:[19] In 2017, the company began to implement plans to list some of its shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange.[20] After the listing it is expected that the shareholding in the company stock will be as reflected in the table below.[19][21][22][23]

• Cipla also owns 51 percent of Quality Chemicals Limited.[27]
• Up until May 2015 Quality Chemicals Limited owned 22.05 percent of CiplaQCIL.[27] Sometime after that, Quality Chemicals sold their entire shareholding; 10.8 percent to three of the individual founders and the remaining 11.25 percent to Cipla European Union, thus raising Cipla's shareholding to the pre-IPO level of 62.3 percent.[28]

The executive chairman of the board of directors of CiplaQCIL is Emmanuel Katongole, who was formerly the managing director of QCIL. He replaced Francis Kitaka, the first person in East Africa to train as a biochemist,[29][30] The managing director of CiplaQCIL is Nevin Bradford.[31]

In September 2018, CQCIL offloaded 18 percent shareholding to institutional and individual investors. The IPO raised US$43.8 million. This puts the valuation of shareholders equity in the company at US$243.3 million.[32]

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