Romanian pharma distributor Farmexpert exceeds EUR 400 mln turnover target

Romanian pharmaceutical distributor Farmexpert’s turnover increased 12 percent in 2011, achieving its target of exceeding EUR 400 million in turnover last year. The producer, controlled by concern Andreae – Noris Zahn A.G. (ANZAG), posted a turnover of some EUR 403 million last year, according to Zf.ro, up on EUR 360 million in 2010, while in 2009 its turnover was of some EUR 248 million. The company has budgeted investments of EUR 7.5 million for this year, mostly for warehousing, and previously said it was aiming for EUR 500 mln in turnover for this year. “The market will be unpredictable in 2012, as usual. Maybe there will be a total market growth of 5 to 10 percent, but we can’t predict exactly how much of this increase will be due to parallel trade, and how much due to the growth of the internal consumption,” said Iulian Trandafir, the company’s chief executive, quoted by Zf.ro. Eugen Banciu, the founder of the company, now a minority shareholder in Farmexpert, is expected to sell around 20 percent of his shares in the company. In October 2011 the minority shareholder of Farmexpert DCI S.A., Romania, informed us that he wants to exercise part of the put option granted to him in 2012 and intends to sell around 20 percent of his shares. The transaction period will probably be in February / March 2012," according to Anzag's financial report. Farmexpert was established in 1996 as a private company. In June 2006, the German concern Andreae – Noris Zahn A.G. (ANZAG) took over 60 percent of the Romanian pharmaceutical company. According to a report from the Competition Council, Romania’s drug market went up four fold from 2000 to 2009, reaching a value of around EUR 1.9 billion, and reached EUR 2.3 billion in 2010. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: Sxc.hu)