Emma Walmsley of Glaxosmithkline
AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot is urging Emma Walmsley to stand firm and stick with her plans for Glaxosmithkline amid an assault from activist investors. His unusual intervention in defence of a rival is largely based on his own experience and that of his board in repelling a bid from US pharma giant Pfizer in 2014.
‘If you are challenged by another company, the key is to have a good plan and stick to it and implement,’ Soriot told the Daily Mail.
He rejected the claim from Elliott Advisers that Walmsley, one of a handful of FTSE100 women chief executives, was unsuited to heading GSK’s freestanding pharma and vaccines arm because she isn’t a scientist.
‘It’s important that the pharmaceutical companies understand every aspect of the firm. You don’t necessarily need to be a scientist. Over the years very smart people will gain the knowledge and be able to be fluent in discussions with scientists,’ Soriot says.
At a time when it seems that much of the FTSE is under siege from private equity and overseas buyers, Soriot urged directors to be tougher. ‘It’s a sad story for the board. It’s much easier to take a premium. In AZ’s case, when it came under siege we had a chairman [Leif Johansson] who, when he says no, it’s no.’
Having seen Pfizer in action in the past, Soriot, 62, did not want to contemplate selling. ‘I have seen the cost cutting which follows and the disorganisation in the [drugs] pipeline.’
He wanted to rebuild AZ’s drug development, and in particular the company’s cancer fighting capacity. He said: ‘We thought if we derail this development, it’s going to impact our patients and our shareholders.’
At a time when so much of the UK’s aerospace, engineering and tech sector is under siege the AZ boss has no doubt about the consequences. He said: ‘First the company disappears, it becomes a branch. Then the substance [the R&D and science] disappears. It takes five years but it happens.’
He and the AZ board, having stood up to a predator, find it hard to understand why the independent directors in other sectors have failed to put up a more robust defence. ‘Senior non-executives seem not to have stood up.’ His advice to Walmsley and the GSK board is ‘do what you think is right’.
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