PGF pharmaceutical group may face hostile take-over

Poland's largest drug distributor Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna (PGF), after scoring several major take-overs during the last three years and now controlling 22% of the domestic market, may face a serious problem. Owners of the companies taken over also became shareholders of PGF, and now some of them plan to sell their stakes, which account to about 18% of shares, granting them 23% of votes. Should a foreign company acquire these shares, PGF major stakeholders Jacek Szwajcowski and Zbigniew Molenda, holding 33% and 49% stakes respectively, can expect a hostile take-over. A company holding 20% stake in PGF would be able to block specific share issues, and with a 25% stake it would be able to change company by-laws. Thus situated it would be able to influence other minor stockowners to sell their shares and in turn conduct a hostile take-over. "We would be happy if a financial investor took over these shares," said PGF president Szwajcowski. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p.25)