The curious and roboshan,All wholesalers used to provide...

The curious and roboshan,

All wholesalers used to provide Guarantee funding. Pharmacist would borrow from the Bank- wholesaler would guarantee debt, take a debenture mortgage over the business and the pharmacy would buy from the wholesaler. They no longer do this and cash flow lending has been fine until recently.

The Govt's PBS reforms have caught everyone out and that is how Sigma got caught with Arrow merger/generics. Margins were from cross licensed products and reforms cut hard- eventually Sigma sold Generics, OTC, manufacturing etc and received $900M. Symbion recently acquired by NZ based EBOS so they are now listed. Severe headwinds await API- the only thing they have worth anything is Priceline. Priceline lends itself to major shopping centres where rents are prohibitive. Priceline might be sound, but the stores are owned by the chemists and margins falling.