Ozone shareholders have hired investment bank Rothschild to assist them in the sale of the pharmaceutical company, according to market information. Rothschild is in the process of drawing up the sale prospectus for Ozone.
The investment bank has assisted BCR, BRD-SocGen, CEC and Banca Transilvania in the sale of insurance company Asiban, which was taken over by French group Groupama. The deal amounted to 350 million euros, a record high on the Romanian market, after the four banks cashed in 87.5 million euros each.
Rothschild also advised Erste in its acquisition of BCR in 2005, and businessman Ion Tiriac in the merger of Banca Tiriac with HVB Bank.
Ludovic Robert, Michel Eid, Roger Akoury, and Walid Abboud, who also hold the majority stake in the biggest Romanian pharmaceutical group A&D Pharma, indirectly control Ozone.
The businessmen have been developing the company since 2000, starting in Romania and subsequently expanding Ozone to several states in the region - Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Hungary. Ozone does not own any production facilities, but works on the basis of manufacturing contracts with several producers. Domestically, the company has 200 employees and 400 at a group level, in line with the latest data available. A&D Pharma, the other pharmaceutical business owned by Ozone stakeholders, has been going through a difficult period in the recent months, after the company reported a 92 percent drop in net income in the first half against the same period in 2007.
The capitalisation of A&D Pharma, a firm listed on the London Stock Exchange, has shrunk by 85% since the start of the year (from 516m euros to 76 million euros), when the company's stock traded at 15.5 euros. In 2007, Ozone posted turnover worth 29.5 million euros, while 2006 turnover stood at 24.5 million euros.
Together with Antibiotice Iasi, which could be put up for privatisation again this autumn, Ozone is the last opportunity for foreign pharmaceutical companies or investment funds to enter the Romanian pharmaceutical market.
Neither Ozone, nor Rothschild representatives were available to comment by the time the story was ready for print.
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