Stada Arz sells two Russian production facilities

German drugmaker Stada Arzneimittel (SAZ: GR) revealed this week that it has signed a contract and accompanying temporary service contracts on the sale of two Russian production facilities, a move that has been anticipated since the company declared its intention to optimize operations in Russia earlier this year (The Pharma Letter April 23).

Stada said all assets of both Russian production facilities will be transferred via a sale of its indirectly wholly owned subsidiaries OOO Makiz Pharma, Moscow, and OOO Skopin Pharmaceutical Plant, Ryazanskaya obl, to LLC DMN Invest, Moscow, in the context of a partial management buyout.

In the context of this disposal, which represents another significant step in the production restructuring in the context of the group-wide cost efficiency program “STADA – build the future” introduced in 2010 Stada incurs a one-time burden on earnings in the amount of around 9.0 million euros ($11.1 million) before taxes or about 7.2 million euros after taxes, which Stada will report as a one-time special effect in the third quarter of 2012. This burden is less than the expenses originally planned in the context of “STADA – build the future” for the Russian production restructuring.