Advent, Bain gain edge in bid for Pfizer's Brazil venture - sources

By Tatiana Bautzer and Guillermo Parra-Bernal

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Bain Capital LP, Advent International Corp and Torrent Capital Investment Corp are on a shortlist of suitors for a Brazilian generic drug making joint-venture in which Pfizer Inc has a 40 percent stake, two people with direct knowledge of the situation said on Friday.

According to the people, the three buyout firms presented more attractive terms than other drugmakers, including Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, did for Teuto|Pfizer, as the venture is known. It controls Latin America's largest generic drugs plant.

A sale could bring between 1 billion reais and 1.5 billion reais ($317 million and $475 million), they said.

The people, who requested anonymity because the process remains private, said that Bain, Advent and Torrent have to put forward binding offers for Teuto|Pfizer by November.

Reuters reported on July 26 that Pfizer and Brazil's Melo family, which owns 60 percent of the venture, had put the company up for sale. Teuto|Pfizer had initially been offered to Teva, Sun and Mylan NV, the report said.

Teuto|Pfizer, in the center west Brazilian city of Anápolis, declined to comment, as did Pfizer, Advent, Bain and Torrent.

The sale underscores the challenge facing generic drugmakers in Brazil, where the harshest recession in eight decades has slowed sales of medicines. Generic drug sales in Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, expanded 10 percent last year, slowing from 15 percent growth in 2014, industry data showed.

Revenue from sales of generic drugs in Brazil topped 46 billion reais ($14 billion) last year.

The investment-banking units of Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Grupo BTG Pactual SA are working on behalf of the Melos and Pfizer.

A sale of Teuto|Pfizer could help Pfizer recoup part of the $240 million it paid for the stake six years ago.

($1 = 3.1585 reais)

(Editing by Dan Grebler)