Scandal in Britain as NHS plasma supplies sold off by Tories for £230 million, then sold on to the Chinese for £820 million

...May 2017

In 2013 the Tories sold off the state owned NHS blood plasma supplier,

Plasma Resources UK (PRUK) to US private equity firm Bain Capital for £230 million.

It’s now been revealed that the US firm has sold  the NHS plasma supply company – now renamed Bio Products Laboratory – to Chinese state-owned firm Creat, for £830 million.

Which means the hapless Tories have managed to cost the UK taxpayer £590 million – while at the same time ensuring essential supplies of plasma to UK patients are now in the hands of the Chinese government.

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Creat Group Corporation buys Bio

Products Laboratory Ltd.

May 18, 2016

ELSTREE, HERTFORDSHIRE, May 18, 2016 – Bio Products Laboratory Ltd. (“BPL”), a leading plasma biotherapeutics company, today announces that a group controlled by Creat Group Corporation (“Creat”), has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the company for a total cash consideration of £820 million.

BPL, headquartered in Elstree, Hertfordshire, provides lifesaving therapeutics for conditions related to immune deficiencies, bleeding disorders, and critical care. BPL’s plasma division, the largest supplier of US plasma to third parties, provides specialty and source plasma to manufacturers that also produce lifesaving therapies.

Creat, a leading Chinese investment group, will invest £100 million in BPL to expand production capacity of lifesaving therapies, develop new products and access new markets. BPL’s existing management team is staying with the company, which will remain headquartered in the UK. Creat will support management’s ambition to transform BPL into a global life-sciences champion, serving more customers and patients in a greater number of markets around the world. Creat is a long-term strategic investor with a track record of growing businesses and a deep knowledge of the plasma sector.

Currently, BPL is 80% owned by Bain Capital Private Equity and 20% by the UK Department of Health. BPL’s Board of Directors is unanimously supportive of the proposed sale of the company to Creat. Under Bain Capital’s ownership, the company has been transformed from a loss-making business to a profitable one. More than £50 million has been invested in the business, over 750 new jobs have been created, including over 150 at its UK headquarters, and sales have increased by 58%.

John Perkins, CEO of BPL, said: 
“I am delighted by our achievements at BPL in recent years. We have transformed BPL into a growth company by investing in people, production capacity, and new products. Ultimately, we have increased supply and introduced new therapies to better serve patients. Creat and the management team share a common set of values and a vision of what BPL can become. Creat is an ideal partner for BPL’s next phase of growth. The entire BPL management team is excited to be working with Creat and is committed to the future of BPL.”

Mr Ng Yuk, CEO of Creat Group Corporation, said: 
“We have come to know the management team at BPL well in recent years and have the highest respect for what they have achieved. We believe we can help BPL achieve its growth ambitions through our long-term investment approach and our deep knowledge of this sector. Our additional investment will create new highly skilled jobs in the UK, as well as increase the supply of important plasma biotherapeutic products for the UK and globally, serving the needs of patients who depend on these lifesaving products.”

About Bio Products Laboratory Ltd. 
BPL is a leading manufacturer of plasma-derived protein therapies with global headquarters in Elstree, England, US headquarters for its Therapeutics operation in Durham, NC. The company exports to more than 45 countries worldwide. BPL has over 60 years of experience developing and manufacturing plasma-derived therapies since being established as part of the Lister Institute in 1950, and currently markets a wide range of products including coagulation factors, human immunoglobulins, and albumin. BPL is committed to continued investment in research and development to maintain its key position as a reliable supplier of high-quality products to patients and healthcare providers worldwide.

About Creat Group Corporation 
Creat Group Corporation is a leading Chinese investment group founded in 1992 that has significant expertise in the plasma industry. It invests in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, energy, finance, natural resources, and real estate. The company is based in Beijing, China, with other offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

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Creat Group has been trusted and respected by all circles since its establishment in 1992, and it has created value for the society and achieved certain development based on its focus on professionalism in financial sector, advantages on project judgment, innovation vitality of operation team, monitoring system for risk prevention and its employees, who believe in integrity and rightness, treat friends nicely, good at cooperation and willing to help others. While establishing strategic partnership with investee companies and providing them with fund supports, Creat has been enthusiastically helping enterprises optimizing their mechanism, expanding their markets, up-scaling and increasing their strengths to lay a solid foundation for their future development, allow them to take leading position in their industries, and increase return to shareholders. It has gone through a development path with Creat’s characteristics, and formed its core competence which integrates resources integration with investment service. 

Creat Group entered into the period of stable development after 2007, it has positioned the enterprise as a professional investment company, and made great efforts to build a century-old enterprise in the field of global investment. Accompany with the continuous outward expansion of company operations, Creat acquired another important strategic opportunity. Based on its profound understanding of China’s industrial transformation and development as well as its comprehensive advantages in acquiring resources at abroad, technologies, market, management, brands and projects, Creat has co-founded fund management organizations and China concept funds with international capital, and successfully facilitated many M&As and reorganizations at home and abroad in the fields of resources development, modern manufacturing and high technology.

Creat Group has gone through over 20 years of development. As a Chinese investment company guided by international strategy, Creat has built an excellent professional investment management team, which persisting in the core idea of  ‘attaching importance to integrity and moral principle, achieving win-win situation through cooperation, being perseverant and persistent and pursuing innovation and excellence’. We have made today’s achievement by being grateful, repaying society for its care and shouldering corporate responsibility. Looking forward to the future, we are willing to continue our cooperation with friends from different countries and share development opportunities. 

Zheng Yuewen

Chairman of the Board, Creat Group Corporation