Following swiftly on last week’s shareholders rejected takeover bid for Stada Arzneimittel (SAZ: Xetra) by private equity firms Bain Capital and Cinven, two of the companies top executives have proffered their resignations.
The news was seemingly welcomed by investors, as Stada’s shares moved up 2.37% to 63.99 euros by late afternoon trading today.
Chief executive Dr Matthias Wiedenfels and chief financial, marketing and sales officer Helmut Kraft have informed the supervisory board that they will step down from their positions with immediate effect for personal reasons. Dr Wiedenfels is also resigning from office as chairman and member of the executive board of the company.
As a result, the firm’s supervisory board has appointed Engelbert Coster Tjeenk Willink as CEO with immediate effect. The duties of CFO will be taken over with immediate effect by Dr Bernhard Düttmann.
The move comes less than a year after Stada’s long-serving chairman of the management board Hartmut Retzlaff resigned due to personal circumstances.
“With Engelbert Coster Tjeenk Willink and Dr Bernhard Düttmann we have brought on board two proven top managers, who will take over the leadership of the company immediately,” said Ferdinand Oetker, chairman of the supervisory board of Stada, who added that the board “accepts the personal decisions taken by Dr Wiedenfels and Mr Kraft. On behalf of the company, I would like to thank these executive board members for their efforts over the past years….Our operational business is unaffected by this, and we do not deviate from our operating and financial targets. Should further takeover offers be made, we will examine and evaluate them impartially.”
Alongside his duties as CEO, Mr Tjeenk Willink will also be responsible for marketing and operations. He has 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and was until 2012 a member of the executive board of Boehringer Ingelheim. Since then, he has been a member of numerous supervisory boards in the sector.
Dr Düttmann was until 2015 CFO of Lanxess, and prior to that was CFO at Beiersdorf. Both members of the executive board were appointed until the end of the year on an interim basis. Dr Barthold Piening, executive board member responsible for production and development, will continue his duties unchanged.
Source: The Pharma Letter
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