The Roemmers family has broken its ties with the Struengmann family, leaving Uruguay-based Latin pharma giant Mega Pharma, which was founded in 2002.
International drugmakers are continually restructuring and Latin America’s multinationals are no exception.
Pharmabiz has learned that the regional giant Mega Pharma, which counted local businessman and pharma reference point Alberto Roemmers as a shareholder, has seen a major overhaul, with Roemmers, as well as the Wehe family, stepping away from the firm, leaving Thomas Struengmann as the sole owner of a company that was founded in 2002.
The holding company, which now falls under the complete control of shareholder Thomas Struengmann, follows the tendency for international drugmakers to continually restructure. The move will lead to a certain degree of «dissonance«: Mega Pharma subsidiaries will continue to carry the Roemmers name despite their founder Alberto Roemmers’ having stepped aside.
Alberto Roemmers, who hit the headlines in the Argentine press owing to a huge birthday party thrown in Morocco, owned almost 50% of Mega Pharma, with the Wehe family maintained a minority stake of roughly 5%. According to market sources, Roemmers is likely to have pocketed close to US$ 1.1 billion in the transaction.
In practice, as far as Pharmabiz could ascertain, the three shareholders worked as two blocs with 50% each, while Struengmann had the last word as director.
The agreement, on which neither party wished to comment, leaves an unclear role for Argentina’s largest pharmaceutical company in its regional operations, leading to a situation in which Mega Pharma’s subsidiaries (Roemmers Uruguay, Roemmers Ecuador, Roemmers Venezuela, and others) will continue operating under the Roemmers name despite their founder stepping aside. Mega Pharma has its own presence in Argentina through the drugmakers Raymos, Amega, Poen and Max Vision.
Roemmers subsidiaries in Argentina operate under the name Siegfried and have their own sites in Colombia, México, Peru and Ecuador. Visit site.
Last year, the news agency Reuters reported that Mega Pharma had hired the services of investment bank Jefferies LLC to explore a possible public offering but sources tell Pharmabiz that this was never in the company’s plans. See article.
