On the heels of a private equity buyout campaign that ultimately fell flat, Bavarian Nordic’s board chair is stepping aside.
Luc Debruyne, who took the top spot on Danish vaccine specialist Bavarian Nordic’s board of directors in early 2023, has stepped down from his post, effective immediately. The company’s board has tapped Vice Chair Anne Louise Eberhard to replace Debruyne, according to a Nov. 13 press release.
Debruyne’s exit from the board follows—and is directly informed by—the recent implosion of a planned acquisition of Bavarian Nordic by a private equity consortium, which hit the skids last week after failing to muster enough shareholder support.
“After careful reflection on both the process and the outcome of the recent takeover attempt, I have decided to step down to enable the board of Bavarian Nordic to focus on the company’s next phase of development,” Debruyne said in a statement.
As for Eberhard’s immediate appointment as successor, the new board chair said Bavarian Nordic’s board “believes it is in the best interest of the company and our shareholders to ensure stability and continuity in the governance and leadership of the company.
“Therefore, I have accepted the role as chair of the board and will work with my fellow board members to guide and collaborate with the management in whom we have full confidence in the continued execution of the strategy,” she continued.
When the consortium that had been looking to purchase Bavarian Nordic—made up of Nordic Capital and Permira—made an “attractive proposal” for the company in July, Bavarian Nordic’s board unanimously backed the potential transaction. The deal, the board said at the time, would have offered Bavarian Nordic “ample capital and resources” to assist the company on its growth journey.
But Bavarian Nordic’s largest shareholder ATP—Denmark’s biggest pension fund—quickly threw a spanner in the works by objecting to the proposed deal, arguing over the summer that neither the timing nor the price accurately reflected the company's long-term potential.
Despite the private equity consortium upping its offer to a “best and final price” of 250 Danish kroner (then $38.61) per Bavarian Nordic share in October, just 60% of the company’s shareholders ultimately accepted the deal, leaving the proposed transaction dead in the water. The company's shares closed trading today at 187 kroner.
The chair’s departure comes at an apparently tumultuous time for boards of directors at Danish drugmakers.
Late last month, Novo Nordisk announced that seven members of its board—including the current sitting chair—would hit the exit after a stalemate in leadership talks involving Novo’s chief shareholder, the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
The shake-up comes amid a broader regime change at Novo, which replaced its longtime CEO with company insider Maziar Mike Doustdar in August. Novo is slated to hold an extraordinary general meeting Friday to elect replacements for the departing board members.