ICN Plans to Sell Russian Plants, Drugstores
By VITA REED
Costa Mesa-based ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. is gearing up to sell its troubled Russian business by June.
Michael Danzi, an Orange County venture capitalist and biotechnology executive who’s acting as an ICN consultant, said he’s in charge of selling the unit, which includes other related Eastern Europe operations (see related item, page 3).
Danzi also said ICN has retained Russian investment banker Alfa Bank as an adviser on a sale. ICN, a midsize drug maker, declined to comment on published reports about the move.
Russian business publication Vedomosti, citing Alfa Bank documents, said ICN plans to sell five drug plants and some 100 drugstores in Russia as part of a reorganization.
ICN Russia had 2002 sales of $99 million, gross profit of $36.5 million and a gross profit margin of 37%, Vedomosti reported.
The operation fared worse on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, which came in at $2.5 million, a 2.5% margin.
ICN’s Eastern Europe operation, primarily Russia, made up $103 million of the drug maker’s 2001 sales of $858 million.
ICN Pharma, the Russian factory business, and ICN Apteka, the drugstore chain, are set to be sold as a whole or separately, according to Alfa Bank. The Russian business employs 5,094 people and its factories produce around 300 products. Two-thirds are over-the-counter medications. A third are prescriptions, according to Vedomosti.
A spokesman for Protek, a Russian medicine distributor, told Interfax news service that it’s likely to buy ICN Russia. The main difficulty in evaluating the market value is if the business would be sold in its entirety, he said.
Another unidentified potential buyer told Vedomosti: “We would buy ICN Pharma in its entirety, but for no more than $30 million. We have analyzed their portfolio of medicines and have come to the conclusion that the majority of their medicines are low-profit or even unprofitable, which is why the company suffers losses in big sales amounts. This portfolio will have to be restructured, and some of the manufacturing plants will probably have to be closed.”
Corinthian Added to S & P; MidCap 400
Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges Inc. recently was added to Standard & Poor’s MidCap 400 Index.
The for-profit college operator was added to the index’s diversified commercial services sub-industry group. The market value of companies in the S & P; MidCap 400 ranges from $900 million to $3 billion.
Corinthian counted a market value of $1.6 billion at recent check. The company has been among the best Orange County performers on Wall Street, with a doubling in its shares since September. Acquisitions and internal growth have driven Corinthian’s sales and profits.
The company runs nearly 70 career-training schools and counts some 34,000 students. Corinthian’s schools offer degrees in healthcare, business, technology and criminal justice.
