Darnitsa Pharmaceutical company is waiting for the start of court proceedings on its claim against the BCPP management

Darnitsa Pharmaceutical company is waiting for the commencement of court proceedings on the claim, which it filed as a shareholder of the pharmaceutical plant against the management of the Borshchahivskiy Chemical Pharmaceutical Plant (BCPP).

According to the information provided to Interfax Ukraine by the Darnitsa’s lawyer and counsel at the law firm Aequo Yevhen Levitskyi, we are talking about the purchasing of raw materials by BCPP from the German Farmaplant Fabrikation Chemischer Produkte GmbH through the mediation of Metabay Import/Export Limited company, which, according to Darnitsa, had been carried out at prices significantly higher than the market average at the time of purchase.

“The point of argument is in the fact that at least since 2014, BCPP had been purchasing pharmaceutical raw materials from the German company Farmaplant at a price that, by estimate of Darnitsa, was significantly higher than the market price. Darnitsa estimates the amount of damage caused by the BCPP management minimum at $4.2 million,” he said.

According to the data of the British register, Metabay is owned by Irina Rzhepetska – the director of business development of the BCPP and daughter of the chairman of the supervisory board of the BCPP Mykola Bezpalko.

According to Levitskyi, Darnitsa has initiated three court proceedings in total – in the UK, Switzerland and Ukraine. At the same time, the claims in the UK and Switzerland are auxiliary and are aimed at ensuring the execution of the decision that the court will take in Ukraine.

All three proceedings started in March 2021. On March 19, the High Court of Justice in London blocked the accounts of Metabay, and on March 26 a similar decision was taken by a court in Switzerland.

The lawyer emphasized that Darnitsa's claims are based on the fact that “the BCPP’s management, most likely, had been artificially inflating the costs of the enterprise, thereby damaging the enterprise itself and its shareholders.

Levitskyi informed that the London court would continue to consider the seizure of funds on April 16.

As reported, On March 20, 2015, Darnitsa pharmaceutical company acquired 3,100 thousand shares (29.95% of the authorized capital) of the SPC BCPP at the auction from the Department of Communal Property of Kyiv.

Darnitsa Pharmaceutical company was founded in 1930. It has been the leader in Ukraine in terms of the volume of drugs production since 1998. The portfolio’s strategic directions are cardiology, neurology and pain management. The beneficiaries of the company are the Zagoriy family.

JSC SPC Borshchahivskiy Chemical Pharmaceutical Plant is in the top 20 largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in Ukraine and is a member of the Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine Association (AMMU)

According to the data in the information disclosure system of the Securities and Exchange Commission, 31.5525% of BCPP shares belong to the PrJSC Darnitsa Pharmaceutical Company, 21.2636% and 20.3169% respectively belong to the companies Beldor Group S.A. and Lenika Group S.A. (both of them registered at the British Virgin Islands) Another 8.4630% of the shares are owned by Aletber Limited. There is no information on the ultimate beneficial owners of these companies in the public domain. The rest of the shares are held by minority shareholders.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua