Lonza brings the new CEO to Siegfried
Published: Tuesday, Apr 2nd 2024, 11:10
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Lonza has filled the vacancy at the top of the Group around six months after the departure of its former CEO. The world's largest pharmaceutical contract manufacturer has turned to its competitor Siegfried to fill the vacancy, bringing in its CEO Wolfgang Wienand.
The German will become the new CEO of Lonza in summer 2024, the Basel-based company announced on Tuesday. At that time, 71-year-old Albert Baehny will be able to retire from the company for good. The French-speaking Swiss has held a dual role at Lonza since October 2023.
Since former Lonza CEO Pierre-Alain Ruffieux had to leave after less than three years, Baehny has not only been Chairman of the Board of Directors, but also CEO ad interim. Lonza had already chosen Dutchman Jean-Marc Huët as Baehny's successor at the head of the Board of Directors in January.
Many changes in the past
During Baehny's tenure, Lonza transformed itself from a chemical company into a market leader in contract manufacturing (CDMO). However, he is also known for his high "CEO wear and tear".
This is because Lonza's CEOs have been in each other's hands over the past five years. Long-time CEO Richard Ridinger left at the beginning of 2019, Marc Funk just nine months later and Ruffieux stepped down in the fall of 2023. During this time, Baehny had to act as interim CEO twice.
Baehny is full of praise for his new choice Wienand: "The Board of Directors is delighted to have appointed an experienced CEO with a strong and established track record in the CDMO industry," he explained in the communiqué.
Wienand has indeed left an impressive mark on Siegfried in his five years as CEO: Under his leadership, the company from Zofingen AG has grown by more than 60 percent to almost CHF 1.3 billion in sales and now employs over 3,700 people.
One league bigger
However, Wienand's footsteps are even bigger: Lonza generated sales of CHF 6.7 billion in the 2023 financial year and employs around 18,000 people.
And while Siegfried is primarily active in the chemical production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished dosage forms such as tablets, Lonza is dominated by the lucrative production of active ingredients using biotechnology.
According to Baehny, Wienand is "ideally positioned" to lead Lonza "into the next chapter of the growth phase." The soon-to-be Frenchman had already outlined where the journey would take him last fall.
High expectations
In a nutshell: Lonza also wants to grow strongly after corona. The company became known during the pandemic primarily for the Moderna vaccine order.
The trend towards pharmaceutical companies outsourcing the production of active ingredients to specialists such as Lonza will continue. As proof of this, Lonza recently purchased two large production facilities from Roche in California.
Wienand's target: Lonza wants to grow by 11 to 13 percent annually in local currencies by 2028. And the margin should return to the 32 to 34 percent range. This had recently fallen to 28.9 percent because the loss of vaccine orders was very lucrative.
But as a former top athlete, Wienand is used to challenges. The manager, who was born in 1972, took part in two Olympic Games as a foil fencer (Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000), won several medals at world and European championships and was German champion several times.
Siegfried shares suffer
Meanwhile, the initial euphoria on the stock market has subsided: At 10.30 a.m., Lonza shares were still 0.4 percent higher at CHF 542.20, up 53 percent since the beginning of the year.
Siegfried shares, on the other hand, dipped by 4% following the loss of its CEO. Under Wienand, the share price had more than tripled since 2019.
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