Ranbaxy’s turnover in Romania was EUR106 million last year, and the Indian company registered a profit margin of over 20%. Ranbaxy was the largest drug producer in Romania in 2012.
“The major countries I am responsible for and where there are local companies include Romania [where Ranbaxy owns drug maker Terapia], Russia, Ukraine & Kazakhstan, Poland,” says Stead.
Stephen Stead has over 20 years’ experience in the European pharmaceutical industry and was appointed by investment fund Advent International to run two of the fund’s investments in Romania, Terapia and Labormed. He was entrusted with the restructuring and with preparing the sale of the two companies.
At his new job within Ranbaxy, Stead works for the group with which he signed a deal in 2006, when Advent exited Terapia, selling it to Ranbaxy for a record-high $324 million.
Ranbaxy is India’s largest drugmaker, with turnover of $2.3 billion last year, and has 16 production facilities in eight countries. The Terapia plant in Cluj (northwestern Romania) is the group’s third largest worldwide and the largest in Europe.
On a visit to Romania last month, Arun Sawhney, CEO and managing director of Ranbaxy, said Ranbaxy’s Romanian operations were becoming a key hub for the Indian company, exporting drugs to a total of 30 countries. Terapia’s exports near 100 million lei (EUR23 million).
In the overall Romanian drug market, Ranbaxy ranks ninth, with a market share of 3.7% between July 2012 and June 2013, according to market research company Cegedim Romania.
Stead, one of the longest-standing managers in the pharmaceutical industry
When he left Labormed, Stead said he was planning to return to the pharmaceutical market. In the past 20 years he has worked in Central and Eastern Europe in all key markets.
He left as manager of Labormed abruptly last summer and shortly thereafter information emerged that Advent was planning to sell the company, which it did. Currently Labormed is held by US Alvogen.
During his first term in office running Terapia, the pharmaceutical market was doing very well, which allowed investment fund Advent, when it sold Labormed, to get back ten times the amount it had invested.
In the case of Terapia and Labormed, Stead worked with the same team and implemented the same strategy: acquisition of companies and of brands. For instance for Labormed he took over Ozone and bought brands from PlantExtrakt.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)