RETAIL/WHOLESALE

Berlin  -  Germany’s leading pharmaceutical wholesaler Phoenix stabilised its returns in the business year that concluded in January 2009: The pre-tax result increased from 21 to 45 million euros. The earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) grew by 3 percent to almost 69 million euros. The German group, which includes, besides the wholesaler, various service providers such as the IT provider ADG, was thus able to increase its returns for the first time in four years. However, the profitability still lies clearly above the earlier levels.

The company was also able to record a growth in turnover on the domestic market: The revenue climbed by around 4 percent to 6.5 billion euros. The Mannheim based group employs just under 3500 people in Germany, around 3000 of them in wholesale. It cannot be deduced from the figures how the core business, which generates 97 percent of the turnover, has developed.

The financial situation of the company, which experienced payment difficulties at the end of 2008 due to the problems of the Merckle group, is also unclear. A special report at the start of the year gave no indication of the company value. The fixed assets were drastically reduced from 1.1 billion to 353 million euros. Possible value corrections could have occurred in the framework of the agreement with the Merckle creditors: In view of a possible purchase at Phoenix, the structures and the allocation of resources are currently undergoing scrutiny by a trustee.

Despite all turbulence, Phoenix has shone since the turn of the year as the new European market leader: Overall the company increased its turnover by 4.6 percent to 22.6 billion euros in the previous year as a result of acquisitions – and thereby overtook the former European market leader Celesio, who generated a turnover of 21.8 billion.

Patrick Hollstein, Mon, January 11, 2010 06:45pm CET