LINFIELD, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 6, 1998--Global Spill Management, Inc. (BIOF) announced Monday the appointment of Keith D. Beekmeyer, a principal of Litchfield Continental Ltd. (London) to the unoccupied position of Chairman of the Board and CEO of Global.
Beekmeyer is the first nominee of Biofarm, S.A., Global's Romanian pharmaceutical acquisition, to be placed on the Board of Global.
(Previously, Global announced the acquisition of Biofarm from Litchfield, the results of operations of Biofarm for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 1997, and first quarter ended March 31, 1998, and the forthcoming Special Meeting of Global shareholders to approve of the Biofarm acquisition, the change in the name of Global to ``Biofarm Inc.'', the election of Litchfield-Biofarm nominees to the Global Board, and the increase in the capitalization of Global.)
Beekmeyer, who lives in London, attended the London Business School, is a principal and one of the founders of Litchfield, and prior thereto was with the Niskam Foundation, with a subsidiary of Petrofina Oil and with Barclay's Bank (London).
Beekmeyer stressed that his appointment to the Global position in advance of the Special Meeting of Global shareholders was to give further momentum and credence to Litchfield's stated intention to expand the scope of the Litchfield-Global transaction concerning Biofarm to include other assets owned by Litchfield.
Presently, Litchfield has holdings in chemical, real property, marine and aviation, mining and financial management companies. Beekmeyer emphasized that Litchfield's holdings other than Biofarm would be contributed to Global immediately following the Global shareholders' meeting and would be contributed without additional consideration from Global.
Beekmeyer stated that ``Litchfield believes that Global is the appropriate vehicle into which to place Litchfield's diversified assets, inasmuch as Litchfield's initial transaction with Global involving Biofarm will itself make Litchfield Global's majority shareholder.''
The Global Board, in naming Beekmeyer chairman and CEO today, also recognized that current Litchfield-Biofarm negotiations to acquire additional pharmaceutical properties for Biofarm in Eastern Europe, England, Africa and Asia had reached the point where it was necessary to demonstrate that Global would be the ultimate acquiror without waiting for the forthcoming Special Meeting of Global shareholders to vote upon the Biofarm acquisition.
David R. Stith, acting president of Global, stated that ``Global believes it to be imperative that it demonstrate to the entities with whom Litchfield-Biofarm is negotiating that Global is not only prepared to expand Biofarm's pharmaceutical operations but also to provide the liquidity and exposure offered by the NASDAQ market to acquire the additional pharmaceutical properties now being negotiated by Litchfield-Biofarm.''
Beekmeyer also noted that the Romanian pharmaceutical market continues to expand steadily. Notwithstanding devaluation, the annual growth of the market was 11% during the period 1994-1996. The total Romanian pharmaceutical market amounted to $170 million in 1996 (of which the government itself spent $22 million).
He also noted that Romanian manufacturers had additional production capacities and that their production costs were much lower than those in Western Europe. However, much of the Romanian manufacturing capacity is in need of modernization, principally because of the absence of capital investment.
For this reason, Biofarm previously (June 11, 1998) announced its retention of LINDE AG to upgrade Biofarm's production capacity and to permit Biofarm to obtain GMP status. (LINDE AG (and its Linde CKA subsidiary (Dresden)) was retained by Biofarm to upgrade Biofarm's production processes to conform to international Good Market Practices status (GMP). This will give Biofarm the ability to manufacture and distribute its own products and those of other pharmaceutical manufacturers at costs less than that of their European competitors. Biofarm will become the first Romanian pharmaceutical manufacturer to obtain GMP status.)
Biofarm's engagement of LINDE represents a determined effort to take advantage of projected significant growth in the Romanian pharmaceutical market. It is estimated that such growth will result in total domestic sales of $500 million by year 2000.
Biofarm's strategy is to be in position to take advantage of such growth.
(The forward-looking statements contained above involve all of the risks and uncertainties inherent in any business venture, especially one committed to the increase in manufacturing and sales functions. Beekmeyer's comments on the Romanian pharmaceutical market are predicated upon information contained in a release, dated April 4, 1997, issued by the International Trade Administration.)