Merckle pledged Phoenix shares

13.10.2009 15:50

In the summer of 2005, Merckle increased its stake in HeidelbergCement for €2.6 billion. As security for the loan from a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Merckle, among other things, ceded more than half of the shares to Phoenix.

With overly ambitious expansion plans for the building materials group HeidelbergCement, the late entrepreneur Adolf Merckle drove his empire to the brink of ruin. The difficulties have also placed Europe's leading pharmaceutical trading group, Phoenix, in a dangerous precarious position: As the industry service APOTHEKE ADHOC reports, Merckle pledged shares in the Mannheim-based pharmaceutical distributor four years ago to finance the takeover of the cement giant.

In the summer of 2005, Merckle increased its stake in HeidelbergCement for €2.6 billion. As security for a loan from a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Merckle, among other things, assigned more than half of the shares to Phoenix.

The external financing is extremely sensitive: The Phoenix package, which the Swabian entrepreneur used to expand his empire, did not belong to him alone. To this day, minority shareholders hold shares in one of the Mannheim-based pharmaceutical distributor's owner companies.

They feel they have been held "economically hostage" by Merckle, especially since the pledged shares cannot currently be redeemed given the Merckle Group's difficult situation. On the contrary: To prevent their own insolvency, the Phoenix holding companies also had to join the standstill agreement with Merckle's creditor banks. Last week, the trustee assumed control over all of the owners' shares. A complete restructuring of the shareholder structure is not out of the question.