Stada CEO and CFO tumble in takeover turmoil

Stada, the German generic drugs manufacturer, saw its two most senior executives leave the company for ‘personal reasons’.

Matthias Wiedenfels, CEO, and Helmut Kraft, CFO, left the company only days after a takeover bid by Bain Capital and Cinven had failed to secure enough shareholder support.

The supervisory board of Stada announced that Angelbert Coster Tjeenk Willink, a former executive at Boehringer Ingelheim, will be the interim CEO and Bernhard Düttmann will become interim CFO.

Wiedenfels had only held the position for a year prior to leaving the role. The circumstances around the two executives’ departure are immediately apparent, as they had been contracted to remain at the company until 2017. However, the takeover partners are presumed to have lining up their own CEO candidates prior to the completion of the deal.

The original bid of last week failed as it was required to achieve more than 67.5% of shareholder approval but fell short at 65.52%. It is expected that the company will return with a further bid the coming weeks but with a reduced required threshold of shareholder support, at around 65%.

Bain Capital and Cinven will have to apply to BaFin, Germany’ financial regulator, as a second-bid would violate the one-year waiting period before a new bid can be made on the company.

Stada’s Chairman, Ferdinand Oetker, stressed to Bloomberg that the change in management is in no way related to the takeover situation – a defence that seems a little unlikely, given the timing.

Ben Hargreaves