A&D Pharma, the largest pharmaceutical company in Romania, which includes the Sensiblu drugstore chain and distributor Mediplus, has retained ING Bank's London arm in order to sell a stake to investors on the London Stock Exchange.
According to information released by A&D Pharma yesterday, the main shareholder of the company, the Sograno fund registered in the Netherlands, will sell part of the shares.
The offering will come in form of global depositary receipts, and needs to be approved by the UK Listing Authority.
"London was chosen because it is the centre of the capital markets in Europe. Most international analysts in our industry are based in London, therefore this choice came naturally to generate efficient trading of the company's shares and the necessary attention from the international investment community," stated Dragos Dinu, CEO of A&D Pharma. He would not provide further information on this listing operation "for the time being." Sograno owns 99% in A&D Pharma, and the other shareholders are Robert Ludovic Charles Simon, Walid Abboud, Michel Charles Eid and Roger Fawzi El Akoury. A&D Pharma officials have been unwilling to reveal who the shareholders behind Sograno are, merely stating that Sograno is "an investment vehicle registered in the Netherlands."
Early this year, the group had its business on the Romanian market valued at approximately 300m euros, an amount registered as contribution to the share capital. The company also set up a legal entity by the same name at the time, to unite its operations on the domestic market.
The company had the market value of its business established when it created the new legal entity, as required by the laws in effect.
A&D Pharma's business amounted to 283.7 million euros last year.
It expects this year's turnover to reach 440 million euros. A&D Pharma posted 147.9 million-euro sales in the first half of this year.
The operations of the group are run by Dragos Dinu, 39, who has held this position since 2002. He joined the company in 1996, as Area Sales Manager of the Plurifarm Division (of Mediplus Exim).
Mediplus is the leader of the Romanian pharmaceutical distribution market and operates a logistic system consisting of 12 warehouses throughout the country. It posted 15.4 million-euro profit and 220 million-euro turnover last year.
A&D Pharma's retail division is represented by the Sensiblu network with over 200 outlets in over 51 cities of the country. The chain posted 6.3 million-euro losses last year, while turnover reached 63.7 million euros. The A&D Pharma group is one of the most dynamic companies in Romania, with an annual growth rate of over 50%. The group has recently taken out a syndicated loan worth 100 million euros, which is one of the largest private loans since the beginning of the year. The money will be used to expand the company's retail and distribution operations, but could also fund acquisitions.
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