Sanitas' bourse plans

The Lithuanian pharmaceutical producer Sanitas, part of the Invalda group, which holds a majority of shares in Jelfa, confirmed that it wants to replace Jelfa's shares with its own on the WSE. "When Sanitas has 100 percent of Jelfa's shares, they will be withdrawn from the WSE. We would like to carry out this operation by the end of 2006," said Saulius Jurgelenas, general director of Sanitas. At the beginning of April, Sanitas took over 84 percent of Jelfa, which gave the Invalda group control of over 94 percent of the Polish company.

"We will need funds for the development of the company, so we are considering listing on both the WSE and VSE [Vilnius Stock Exchange]," Jurgelenas explained. Sanitas wants to achieve a leading position in the CEE region among producers of generic pharmaceuticals. It is already present in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and now in Poland. It also plans to expand to the Balkans and Romania. According to Jurgelenas, Jelfa will be the group's research and development core.

Sanitas' revenue in 2005 amounted to zł.68 million while net profits reached the level of zł.12.2 million. Jelfa's revenue was zł.307 million last year and it posted a profit of zł.18.9 million.