Greek "Alapis" wants to increase investments in Serbia – company interested in takeover of "Galenika"

Greek company "Alapis" announced today (September 29, 2009) that it had increased the value of capital by 451m EUR through additional capitalization and that it was ready to continue with the investments in Serbia.

"Alapis" is the leading pharmaceutical company in Greece, and it is the owner of "Šumadijalek" in Serbia. Its representatives announced participation in the tender for sale of Belgrade-based “Galenika”, which has been postponed until the next year.

"Alapis" also owns four pharmaceutical factories, one factory for production of cosmetic products and one for production of veterinarian drugs, as well as Greek drug wholesaler "Marinopoulos".

"Šumadijalek" is among the top eight drug wholesalers in Serbia.

The Director General of "Šumadijalek" and a member of the Administration of “Alapis”, Janis Georgakopulos, said that the money from additional capitalization of "Alapis" would be used for partial repayment of short-term loan, financing of the company’s solvency, as well as for investments in Greece and Southeast Europe.

- "Galenika" is not our only goal in Serbia because we firmly believe in the prospects of this country, we’ve been investing in Serbia and we will keep doing so, and since our solvency is on very high level, especially after additional capitalization, we are surely able to use such comparative advantage over our competition in case some good investment opportunity arises – said Georgakopulos.

Group "Alapis" has 2,500 workers. Its turnover in 2008 amounted to 1.1 billion EUR, while the profits reached 277.9m EUR, which is twice as much as in 2007.