One of the founders of A&D Pharma, the biggest local pharmaceutical group and a business of over 500 million euros last year, talked about how the company was set up and about development plans in an exclusive interview with ZF. He asked to remain anonymous. The four founders of A&D Pharma, Michel Eid, Ludovic Robert, Roger Akoury and Walid Abboud, are the most powerful players in the local pharmaceutical industry, controlling about 20% of the market, but keep a very low profile. They do not give interviews and there are no photos of them.
"We were very fortunate that there were four of us. For each good decision, there was a bad decision, and at that time one of us would tell the others to stop. Every time we thought we knew what we were doing, we actually realised we didn’t," he says.
Lebanese-born, the four met while they were studying in France, when they decided to invest in the emerging countries of the former communist bloc.
"We did not come to Romania just to earn a salary. We could have worked in Lebanon and lived a "dolce vita". We had nothing to lose here," the A&D Pharma shareholder explained.
Is it easier to do business in Romania now or was it then? "To me it is easier because I’m more experienced. Somebody else would probably need three lifetimes. The market was forgiving in the beginning, which it no longer is now," he replies. Back then, nobody had the know-how and could make mistakes, he added, now, everybody knows how to do business in the pharmaceutical industry.
"We did not embrace a classic management style. Every argument among shareholders was constructive, and with the lower levels we tried to drive everything down to a matter of responsibility," the founder of the group added.
In 2004, the four started to gradually withdraw from managing the business, so that in 2006 they left the management side completely. Also in 2006 A&D Pharma floated on the London Stock Exchange, a decision regarded with scepticism by the business environment. Does he see it as a mistake?
"It’s not a mistake in itself. To us (shareholders i.e.) it wasn’t. What was perhaps a mistake was the manner in which a listed company was run. Which is why we took control again," the shareholder says.
Dragos Dinu, the public figure of A&D Pharma and the most powerful executive in the pharmaceutical industry, had a six-year term at the helm of the group, which ended in mid last year. He represented the company in the talks with the authorities and the media.
As for the development of A&D Pharma, the founder does not rule out regional acquisitions, as the presence in the neighbouring countries is mandatory for the company’s value to reach 800 million euros in five to seven years, as well as an 80 million-euro EBITDA. At which time he will sell, he says. However, talks in Hungary and Bulgaria have been put on hold this year.
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