Hoping to land on its feet after a tough year, Stada is nearly ready to announce drug industry veteran Claudio Albrecht as its next CEO. The news, coming from Bloomberg’s sources, follows more than a year of developments that were disappointing, dramatic and just plain strange.
After its €5.3 billion ($6.3 billion) buyout from investment firms Bain and Cinven fell short back in July, the drugmaker brought in former Boehringer Ingelheim executive Engelbert Coster Tjeenk Willink to serve as interim CEO. Bernhard Düttmann, a financial veteran, was named interim CFO. Bain and Cinven have since sweetened their offer and the companies are now working to win enough shareholder support to close the deal.
Now, in a move that will mark its fourth CEO in a little over a year, the drugmaker is nearing an announcement for Albrecht as its next leader, according to Bloomberg. Albrecht is a former CEO of two European generic firms, the news service reports.
Stada’s dramatic year has featured the exit of longtime CEO Hartmut Retzlaff last June due to a “serious, long-term illness.” When his successor Mattias Wiedenfels took the helm, he quickly stripped Retzlaff’s son of some duties and fired advisors.
The company has meanwhile dealt with with activist investor attention from Active Ownership Capital, which pushed to replace board members with its own candidates. After significant drama, the company nearly finished a deal to sell itself to Bain Capital and Cinven this year, but couldn’t win enough shareholder support.
As for the weird, Wiedenfels discovered he was the target of a spying operation as deal talks heated up, according to a report from Manager Magazin. According to that publication, the former helmsman found a recording device in his car and received photographs of himself in personal or private business situations.
By Eric Sagonowsky
Source: Fierce Pharma
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