Relad, a 200m-euro business, files for insolvency

The management of Relad Internațional filed for insolvency last week and if the court of law sustains it, this will become the biggest insolvency on the drug market, as well as of the entire Romanian business sector.

Relad Internațional is one of the largest drug distributors on the Romanian market, which last year posted 874.6 million RON (206 million euros) in turnover, up from 735.25 million RON (199 million euros) in 2008. In terms of turnover, the company ranks among the top five players on this market.

Recently, Roche Romania , the local subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Hoffman La Roche, filed a petition with Buzău Court of Law requesting the insolvency of Relad Internațional as it sought to recover a debt whose value has not been revealed. Then, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, another two international manufacturers, went to court for the same matter. Later, the Relad management filed for insolvency on its own, which comes amid “supplier scepticism as to our good intentions to continue our operations in the pharmaceutical sector.”

The company sent to ZF on Thursday a note announcing that “Relad management has decided to file the petition for the general reorganisation of Relad Internațional SRL with the Buzău Court of Law.” The judicial administrator that Relad requested is SP Balescu&Asociații SPRL Buzău.