Totally Agree Ramses that:"There does not seem enough room for 3...

Totally Agree Ramses that:

"There does not seem enough room for 3 Wholesalers in a market with declining margins and where Govt PBS reforms are impacting on pharmacy margins and wholesaler margins."

Having said that ACCC have and are likely to reject M & A of the 3 major wholesalers. However times have changed since the Sigma / API merger was knocked back so you never know particularly now we have new smaller but significant players in the wholesale/distribution arena.

I think the crunch will come when Symbion list on the ASX which has been talked about since Zeullig acquired it. With Zeullig's strength and diversity backing Symbion you could only think that API and Sigma may want to start discussions again.

Pharmacy wholesaling has only ever been a mini-margin cash cow and depends totally on volume. The efficiencies and synergy that a merger would create would be a real plus for share holders.

Both API's and Sigma's past management stuffed up their higher margin ethical and own brand products and manufacturing businesses. API's NZ manufacturing business is not yet contributing to profits but has some potential to grow although who would want to source own brand products outside of the Asian sub-continent at the moment.

Australian Government policies (over the last decade or so in particular) have not been kind to all the sectors of the pharmaceutical industry (R & D, Manufacturing, Wholesaling and Retail).......very sad and short sighted in many respects.

I hold both API and Sigma and would be happy for merger talks to begin again.