Privatisation Polfa Tarchomin to be completed by end-year

Halina Lachowska has been appointed as the new chief executive officer of Polfa Tarchomin (PT), the state-owned drug maker. Prior to her appointment, she served as member of the company’s executive board. Meanwhile, Polski Holding Farmaceutyczny (PHF), the state pharmaceutical vehicle which owns PT, revealed a new timetable for its privatisation.
PHF has approached 92 pharma firms about participation in the auction for PT. They have been given until the end of September to submit initial offers. PHF aims to select a buyer for the firm at the turn of 2011, and to sign the privatisation agreement in the first quarter of 2011. Ms. Lachowska said that PT was in the final stages of clarifying the complex legal status of some of its land plots, and that these issues would pose no problems during the privatisation process. (PT owns 75 hectares of land).
Artur Wozniak, the CEO of PHF, revealed that in the first six months of the year Polfa Tarchomin generated sales revenues of approx. PLN 100m (€24.8m). This would represent a decline of more than 10% compared with the same period a year earlier. Net profit was close to zero, against PLN 10.6m (€2.6m) in H1 2009.
For 2010 as a whole Polfa Tarchomin is forecasting revenues of over PLN 200m (€49.5m).
Ms. Lachowska replaces Stanislaw Jakubowski, who was sacked on 9 June. During the intervening weeks PT was managed by Miroslawa Dawidziuk, member of its supervisory board appointed by PHF.


One company that might be interested in the privatisation of Polfa Tarchomin is Sanofi-Aventis, for example. The French drug maker, which recently launched a public takeover bid for Nepentes, has made no secret of the fact that it is considering further acquisitions in Poland. The product offering of Polfa Tarchomin, which includes dermatology medicines, would make a good fit with the portfolio of Nepentes, which is centred around dermocosmetics. This would give Sanofi-Aventis a strong position on the Polish market for dermatology medicines. Polfa Tarchomin also has insulin analogs in its portfolio, just like Sanofi-Aventis.
Another company that could be interested is Italy’s Recordati. The company has for years been on the look-out for potential takeover targets in the Central and Eastern Europe region. In January 2009 it acquired Herbacos-Bofarma, a Czech firm, and in June 2010 it bought ArtMed International of Romania. Expansion into Poland could thus be a natural next step, especially as Recordati has already participated in the privatisation of drug makers in Poland, making bids for Polfa Kutno (six years ago) and Polfa Pabianice (in 2009-2010). Both attempts were unsuccessful.
Because it owns 75 hectares of land, Polfa Tarchomin could also be an attractive target for property developers. However, PHF had signalled earlier that it would only consider offers from pharma firms.

Agnieszka Stawarska

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