Drugmaker Terapia Cluj-Napoca has welcomed two former managers of leading international companies in this industry, Bristol Myers Squibb and Boehringer Mannheim, as members of the Board of Directors on Tuesday.
The two are Jeffrey Lack, former Bristol Myers Squibb (a top ten drugmaker in the world) manager for Eastern European (Romania included) operations and Stephan Stead, who has worked for companies such as Glaxo or Boehringer Mannheim throughout his career.
The appointment of the two foreigners could have something to do with the negotiations over the sale of Romanian drugmaker Terapia, which began last year and are about to be completed, sources on the market say.
Terapia is now controlled by four foreign investment funds and a Romanian trade company, while its most likely buyer will be the American investment fund Advent International, according to the latest info available.
Since Terapia has already been restructured and retooled by its current shareholders, Advent will need to turn it from a local player into a regional presence, if it plans to sell it after four or five years and make substantial profit out of it.
This particular goal might be precisely why the two foreign managers were brought on board as administrators, even though the idea of increasing the number of seats in the Board of Directors from five to seven came from one of the current shareholders, the Romanian Investment Fund (RIF).
Until now, due to the shareholding structure of Terapia, its Board of Directors comprised four representatives of the financing side and only one drug industry representative, Ioan tetu, general manager of the Romfarmachim Bucharest drug trade company, one of the main shareholders. tetu is also the chairman of Terapia's Board.
Terapia is the second-largest Romanian drug producer and fifth top player on this market, after GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Pfizer and Sicomed Bucharest. It was put up for sale because the life span of two of the investment funds already holding significant stakes in the company (Romanian Investment Fund and Romanian Investment Company) is coming to an end next year.
Terapia posted turnover worth 31.76 million dollars and 7.2 million dollars in net profit last year.
The company is listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) and has last traded for 4,400 ROL/share. The market capitalisation of Terapia amounts to 40.1 million dollars. laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro
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