Pharmstandard subsidiary boosts stake in parent company to 16.29%
MOSCOW. July 12 (Interfax) - A wholly owned Pharmstandard subsidiary, Pharmstandard-Leksredstva , has increased its stake in the parent company to 16.29%, the pharmaceutical concern said in a statement.
The company continues to buy back shares in Pharmstandard as its price declines. It purchased another 3 million global depositary receipts (GDR) from the market on July 11 at a cost of 800 million rubles.
Since the buyback program began, it has acquired a total of 11,307,375 GDRs and 140,000 ordinary shares at a total cost of about 6.1 billion rubles.
It is authorized to spend up to 8 billion rubles on the buyback program, which is scheduled to end on December 31.
According to London Stock Exchange data, 20.09% of Pharmstandard shares circulate on that exchange and 9.31% on the Moscow Exchange . A controlling stake is held by Cyprus-registered Augment Investments Limited, whose beneficiaries are Viktor Kharitonin and Yegor Kulkov.
Earlier this week, Pharmstandard executives said treasury stock might be used to finance purchase of a little known company in Singapore - Bever Pharmaceutical - in a deal whose maximum value would be $630 million.
Bever Pharmaceutical, which is owned by one of the members of Pharmstandard's board of directors, supplies substances used in two over-the-counter products: Arbidol and Afobazole. Pharmstandard said that Bever might in future join the company it plans to form to produce branded over-the-counter pharmaceutical products.
Pharmstandard shareholders will vote on purchase of Bever Pharmaceutical at an extraordinary meeting on August 17.
Pharmstandard provided few specifics when it announced the potential Bever acquisition on Monday, sending Pharmstandard share prices into a nosedive. Pharmstandard's market capitalization fell 16% in the first three days of the week, to 70.6 billion rubles, and shares plunged a further 21% on Thursday. The share price bounced back somewhat on Friday (up 7% in Moscow and 3.45% in London), but currently amounts to just 59.3 billion rubles.