Devaluation of Russian ruble could cause problems in "Bosnalijek"

In the last two months, the Russian ruble has devalued against the dollar and euro by about 50 percent, and minority shareholders of „Bosnalijek“ fear that this could affect this most successful BH pharmaceutical company, writes the Patria news agency.

Namely, the receivables of „Bosnalijek“ from the Russian partner have almost reached 50 million KM.

- Regardless of the fact that the prices of delivered products, and thus the receivables, are expressed in euros, there is a real danger that these receivables are jeopardized. Such long payment terms, probably agreed due to the situation that the Russian buyer is involved in the management of „Bosnalijek“ after the occupation, have put it in a position where for the same debt in euros, it now has to provide twice as many rubles – says our source.

Furthermore, our interlocutor points out that it could happen that his position in „Bosnalijek“, achieved through the domestic Haden with a Luxembourg address, is used to influence the decision that „Bosnalijek“ takes over part of the exchange rate differences.

- Of course, the people who realized the Haden project will not miss the opportunity to accept this, so that „Bosnalijek“, jointly with its buyer, bears part of the exchange rate differences. This would mean agreeing to reduce these approximately 25 million euros of receivables by at least a quarter or more, which would lead to a loss of about 6 million euros, only on the existing receivables. Given the people currently in "Bosnalijek", this reduction should not be accepted without reservation. There is a real danger that this devaluation of the ruble will be used as an opportunity to extract about 6 million euros from „Bosnalijek“ and distribute it among the current managers. And then there they are to buy more shares – added our source. 

The amount of uncollected exports at this moment is impossible to verify. The current managers have completely purged the employees who have access to this information, all with the aim of hiding the scope and manner of operations.

The government, as the owner of about 20 percent of the shares, and minority shareholders who own more than 30 percent of the shares, have no possibility of insight into the operations of "Bosnalijek".