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Home Latest news Unipharm will heal the liquidity of the stock exchange
Unipharm will heal the liquidity of the stock exchange
The stock exchange likes the strong and innovative companies. With a series of seminars last year it presented the advantages of the capital market before a wide range of Bulgarian companies.

As a result around 60 companies declared their intention and specific plans for their shares to be issued on the stock market. The later on crisis on the world markets and the adjustment of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange-Sofia at the end of last year and during the current one forced a large part of them to rethink their strategy. According to the managers of Unipharm this did not represent an obstacle to the company for going public on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.

The securities of the drug manufacturer Unipharm began to trade on a regular market on May 26th with stock exchange code UFM. The company is one of the most recent members of the Bulgarian capital market, and it released on the stock exchange by secondary public offering (SPO) its entire capital – amounting to BGN 500 thousand, distributed into the same number of shares of par value BGN 1 each. The first transaction with these securities was concluded at price BGN 75 per share, and 20 transferred shares.

The expectations are that by becoming public Unipharm will both strengthen its positions on the local pharmaceutical market and increase the confidence in the company of the shareholders and consumers of medical products.

The beginning

Since 2000  Unipharm  is a part of the Sopharma group, which unites six enterprises in a dynamic corporate structure, which also includes Vramed АD, Pharmachim Holding АD, NIHFI АD and Rostbalkanpharm.

Unipharm invests in production and scientific implementation mainly in the generic products field. The company produces both own products and subcontracts for its main partner Sopharma, the latter comprising almost one third of the total production for the last accounting year. Two thirds of the assignor’s products are sold on foreign markets like Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and others.

The Bulgarian market is the main market for Unipharm, here the major part of its medical products are sold. Part of the company production is exported to countries like Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, the Baltic states, Poland, Macedonia, etc.

Capital

The shareholding capital of Unipharm is 100% owned by individuals. The chief player is Ognyan Donev, Executive Director, and also a shareholder at Sopharma, who holds 38.37% of the voting shares. A total of 19.25% of the securities are in the hand of Ventsislav Stoev, while the Chairman of the Managing Board and Executive Director Ognyan Palaveev owns 12.89 per cent.

Products

Unipharm manufacture is concentrated in three main directions: solid and liquid dosage forms and haemodialysis concentrates. The main part in the company production list is occupied by tablets (83% of total manufacture), while liquid dosage forms and ointments, including haemodialysis preparations - 17 percent. The company is a major manufacturer of concentrates for haemodialysis (solutions) in Bulgaria, providing for around 65% of the consumption of the healthcare facilities in the country. The company works with tablet production capacity of 480 million tablets annually (Workshop 2 and Workshop 3).

In 2007, 10.6 million packages and 1765 tons of concentrates for haemodialysis were manufactured at Unipharm. Last year the company generated income from medicinal product sales of BGN 16.946 million (a growth of 28.9%), where tablets occupy 86% of total sales, concentrates for haemodialysis - 9%, while liquid dosage forms - 5 per cent.

Market Participation

For the period 2004-2007 Unipharm registered increase in income from drug product sales of between 2.5 % and 27 per cent. According to a report of IMS Health for Bulgaria, Unipharm is in the 20th place with 1.5% market share of the total drug market (Bulgarian and imports). According to the same report the company kept its 4th place (after NIHFI manufacture is transferred to Unipharm) in the sales of Bulgarian drugs for 2006 with a share of 7.1%, after Balkanpharma-Dupnitsa, Sopharma and Tchaikapharma.

The pharmaceutical market in Bulgaria between 2001 and 2006 is characterized by average annual growth of 18.5 per cent. For the period 2007 – 2012 it is expected the market volume to grow in value by close to 40% - up to EUR 909 million, which means it will register an average annual growth of 5.6 per cent.

Investments

For the period 2004-2007 Unipharm has invested a total of BGN 13.6 million. The tablet workshop was expanded and re-equipped with new machines and a new production line was constructed for solid dosage forms. A major innovation was carried out in the concentrations for haemodialysis production sector and a new line was installed for liquid dosage forms.

Unipharm is utilizing a subsidy from the National Innovation Fund for creating a new medicinal product where the value of the investment is BGN 702 634. A project is being carried out under PHARE and EFCD programs amounting to EUR 79 219 for implementing a control and analytical apparatus for testing and analysis of chemical substances.

New warehouses were provided for raw materials, materials and finished goods with total area of 1700 sq. back.