Ending months of uncertainty, drugmaker Pfizer is set to sell its vintage plant in Thane to little-known Vidhi Research and Development for ₹178 crore.
About two months ago, the multinational had said that it would shut down this plant by mid-September – an announcement that had come a year after Pfizer had issued a lock-out notice at the plant following incidents of “indiscipline”.
The Thane facility is one of Pfizer’s oldest and was commissioned in the 1960s.
On Wednesday, Pfizer said it had entered into a Business Transfer Agreement with Vidhi to transfer its business at the Thane plant as a going concern.
On conclusion of the transaction, all workmen presently working with the plant would be transferred to the buyer “so as to facilitate manufacturing operations,” Pfizer said.
Pfizer has been locked in a labour dispute with a section of its workmen at Thane, and while many of them have taken the company’s voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), about 80 remain with the plant.
The stand-off between company and a section of the employees is presently at the Labour Commissioner’s Office, still to be resolved. How it will pan out as the Vidhi transaction is sealed remains unclear.
Of the 74-acre site, about 54 acres that houses the present facility goes to the buyer.
The remaining 20 acres remains with Pfizer’s erstwhile animal health company Zoetis, a person familiar with the details told BusinessLine .
The Thane transaction comes even as Pfizer’s Managing Director Aijaz “Jazz” Tobaccowalla moves to a new role with the US parent company.
Last year, Pfizer had issued a lockout notice at its Thane plant citing multiple incidents of “indiscipline” that had threatened the working environment at the plant.
Pfizer union representatives, however, said that the workmen were unhappy over issues on wages, medical coverage and so on.
Of the 212 workmen at the plant, 132 had opted for a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) that the company had offered.
The company had forked out about ₹80 crore toward the VRS.
The company had then said that the remaining 80 workmen continued to receive full wages, despite plant inactivity.
Pfizer had then also clarified that its decision to shutdown had nothing to do with the lockout notice dispute and was based on the assessment of the plant’s long term viability and ability to achieve the needed production.
In fact, it had said, there has practically been no production activity at this plant since 2013, and closure would not impact the supply of its medicines to patients.
Pfizer is now left with one plant in Goa that is in its fold following its global $68 billion acquisition of fellow-multinational Wyeth in 2009.