A1 investment company president, Alexander Vinokorov, will buy 50% in the major pharmaceutical distributor "SIA International Ltd" from the family of its founder Igor Rudinsky. This is stated in a joint statement of the transaction participants, received by Forbes.

The businessman will acquire 34% of the ordinary shares and 31% of preferred shares of Sintez Plant and 75% of the shares of Biocom Plant. After closing the transaction, Vinokurkov will be the indirect owner of 100% shares of SIA International, 100% shares of Mega Pharm, 51% of ordinary shares and 31% of preferred shares of Sintez and 75% of Biocom. The deal on Sintez and Biocom will be closed after all the necessary regulators approve it. 

Elena Rudinsky, commenting on the deal, said that her husband during his lifetime was negotiating with Vinokorov, and sale of the package is a logical decision for her family. Vinokorov, in turn, said that he did what he had promised Rudinsky.

"SIA International Ltd" was founded in 1993 by entrepreneur Igor Rudinsky and is one of the largest Russian pharmaceutical distributors. It operates in all Russian regions.

"SIA International" started to suffer losses during the crisis of 2008; that's when Rudinsky tried to sell 50% of SIA to American TPG fund, but in the end the deal failed. After that, as Forbes wrote, there were several attempts to sell the package.

Rudinskiy died in the autumn of 2014. Company's debts at the time amounted to 7.2 billion rubles. After the death of the spouse, Elena Rudinsky became co-owner and the regional director of the company, and her younger daughter Irina, an assistant to the general director of CIA Alexander Demkin. In an interview with Forbes in May 2016, Ms. Rudinsky said she planned to return the company to the top three.

Vinokorov is among the shareholders of pharmaceutical distributor since December 2015, and in February 2016 he became the controlling shareholder. The press release stressed that his team was able to agree on debt restructuring, and at the end of 2016 the credit portfolio of the pharmaceutical distributor was reduced by more than 1 billion rubles. In December last year, the distributor attracted funding of VTB Bank in the amount of 5.4 billion rubles.