Arseus sees big drug compounding buys after U.S. add-on

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgo-Dutch medical supplies company Arseus has lined up big acquisitions early in 2013 to boost its pharmaceutical ingredients business after the latest in a string of smaller bolt-on purchases.

The specialist in supplying ingredients for medical compounding, allowing pharmacists to make their own versions of drugs, announced the relatively small purchase on Thursday of Colorado-based B&B Pharmaceuticals.

It followed three acquisitions last month worth a total of about 16.5 million euros ($21.88 million).

"We are fully involved with numerous other acquisition candidates and there are a small amount of big acquisitions coming up if all our plans succeed at the beginning of next year," Chief Executive Ger van Jeveren told a conference call for analysts.

He said the bigger acquisitions, which could be in the United States, Europe or South America, the main markets where Arseus operates, would be worth significantly more than those it made last month, but declined to elaborate.

Arseus, which also sells dentist chairs and surgical equipment, has 75 million euros to spend on making acquisitions, minus the cost of buying Colorado-based B&B Pharmaceuticals, which was announced on Thursday.

It declined to give a value for the B&B deal, saying only it paid 5.5 times core profit for the company, which it forecast would have turnover of about $6 million in 2012.

(Reporting By Ben Deighton; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters and Mike Nesbit)