However, the depreciation of the national currency has negative effects on the firm’s financial results. “But we expect a significant increase in EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization], in spite of the negative impact of exceptional restructuring costs,” said the report.
The company applied significant cost cutting measures in 2008, including reducing staff. “The difficult economic context is not distracting us from our objectives to cut operating costs and optimize the efficiency of activities,” according to a statement in the report by Interim General Manager of A&D Pharma, Robert Popescu.
According to the report, on the distribution segment, represented by Mediplus, company sales soared by one fifth year-on-year in 2008, to €326 mln, while the enterprise’s retail business – the Sensiblu drug store network – surged 27 percent, to €155 mln. Marketing and sales operations totaled €99 mln last year, up eight percent year-on-year.
