Banker Roman Avdeev began to reduce the pharmacy network

The pharmacy chain "36.6" belonging to it closes the loss-making points.
26.04.2018
Kommersant
Origin source
Pharmacy chain "36.6", where the co-owner is Roman Avdeev, is trying to overcome the crisis. The new top management of the company expects to close unprofitable pharmacies in three years and increase its market share from 4.4% to 10%, including through the purchase of competitors. Experts are sure that it will be possible to do this only at the expense of the Moscow Credit Bank, to which "36.6" should receive about 30 billion rubles.

The new top management of PJSC "Pharmacy Chain 36.6" plans to withdraw the retail direction from the crisis by 2021, which accounts for the bulk of the company's revenue. In 2017, this figure was 52.1 billion rubles. To do this, "36.6" has already started closing unprofitable pharmacies, told the "Kommersant" general director of the retail chain Pauline Kiseleva. At the end of 2017, the company owned 1.6 thousand points, of which about 150 are closed. The top manager does not disclose the total number of unprofitable facilities, explaining only that by the end of 2018 it is planned to grow up to 120 new points. Moreover, it is expected to expand both organically and through the purchase of other small networks and individual pharmacies. Rigla (part of the Protek Group) often resorts to mergers and acquisitions: only in 2017 the network bought three small pharmacy retailers, expanding by 89 points. "Compared with Europe and the United States, there are more pharmacies per capita in large cities in large cities, which causes a default crisis," Kiseleva said.

According to her, the company is considering the possibility of creating a new brand in the premium segment. Now the PJSC includes a discounter "Gorzdrav" and pharmacies "36.6". Earlier the company developed the premium brand "AVE-luxury", which includes 12 pharmacies. But in March of this year, Ivan Saganelidze and Vladimir Kintsurashvili came out of PJSC shareholders, taking AVE-luxury under their management.

Ms. Kiseleva expects that by 2021 the EBITDA margin of each pharmacy will be 3.5% (the current figure is not disclosed), and the network share in the market will increase from 4.4% to 10%. For comparison: Rigla's current EBITDA margin for each pharmacy is 4.8%. She also hopes to save the company's reputation. Now the biggest drug distributor Protek refuses to work with "36.6". Earlier the general director of "Proteka" Dmitry Pogrebinsky stated that "36.6" owes the supplier more than 300 million rubles. But in "36.6" they insist that the company has fulfilled all obligations.

As a result of 2017, the total debt of PJSC "Pharmacy Chain 36.6" is about 30 billion rubles. Almost the whole amount is a debt to the Moscow Credit Bank (ICB). One of the shareholders of the pharmacy chain is Roman Avdeev, who owns the ICD.

Changes in the "36.6" management took place in February of this year, when the retail direction was led by Polina Kiseleva, who previously worked in X5 Retail Group, and the wholesale ex-president of Biotek Group Oleg Kovalev. According to a Kommersant source in investment circles, they were nominated by the IBC, which could become the ultimate beneficiary of the pharmacy company.

According to Evgeni Nifantiev, CEO of the Neofarm network, if 36.6 does not manage to get out of the crisis, it will be a loud fall with unpredictable reputational risks for the entire pharmaceutical market. In his opinion, the ICD will help to cope with the network problems, which will continue lending, hoping sooner or later to return the total debt.

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