The real enemy of European capitalism? Quarrels between relatives. After the quarrels at L'Oréal, another historic and powerful entrepreneurial family of the Old Continent falls apart: the Swiss-German Oeri-Hoffmann dynasty, descendants of the great pharmaceutical company Roche. The syndicate pact that for 60 years sealed control of the company founded in 1896 in Switzerland by Fritz Hoffmann falls apart. With the risk of destabilizing the industrial giant and unleashing risk on all of "big pharma", one of the most powerful industries in the world.
Blame Maja Oeri [right photo], descendant of the Hoffmann-La Roche family, owner of 5% of shares in the pharmaceutical company, today in the hands of the numerous branches in which the dynasty has spread. Art lover, patron of the arts (last year she donated 50 million francs to the Basel Museum through the Laurenz Foundation created in 1933 by her grandmother who was also a financer of culture), financier of the MoMA in New York, yesterday Mrs. Oeri made a drastic decision: to get out of the agreement that bound all the members of the family. With the non-trivial consequence that the Oeri-Hoffmanns no longer have a hold on the majority of Roche (the shareholder agreement has dropped to 45 percent). In a terse press release, the family said the billionaire philanthropist had "decided to leave the pact and will exercise her shareholder rights independently." Sparse and detached words, but which hide an earthquake for the structure of the multinational which has 65,000 employees and a turnover of over 30 billion Swiss francs distributed in 150 countries.
While the change is unlikely to have an immediate impact on Roche's future, and the family has been reassured that Ms. Oeri has maintained its long-term commitment to secure the family's overall interests, the ramifications of the decision are clear: Roche is theoretically scalable today. Roche's complex capital structure (today the pact includes, in addition to Maja Oeri, Vera Michalski-Hoffmann, Maja and Andre Hoffmann, Andreas and Catherine Oeri, Sabine Duschmale-Oeri, Joerg and Lukas Duschmale and the Wolf charity foundation, which holds the bulk of the voting rights because most of the free float are shares without rights) has always been considered a penalizing factor by the market, but that same spider web has shielded the pharmaceutical company from Takeovers: When nearby rival Novartis bought a stake in Roche in 2001, the family objected and blocked a merger attempt. Now, however, thanks to a 33%, Novartis is reopening the game for control of the pharmaceutical company, having lost the solid majority of the family. Where financial raids and takeovers don't arrive, family quarrels arrive. When we say snake relatives.
Simone Filippetti – 25 March 2011 – Il Sole 24 Ore – Finance and Markets
