The billionaire Jordanian family, owners of the FTSE100-listed Hikma Pharmaceuticals cashed in £33 million of shares in their drugs giant after its stock was boosted by the coronavirus crisis.
HMS Holding SAL, the Darwazah family trust, offloaded 1.35 million shares due to its market value leaping to £6 billion amid increasing demand for its drugs.
The company was set up in 1978 and floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2005, entering the FTSE100 a decade later.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals pic.twitter.com/hOUGFU80oR
— Haya Cultural Center (@HCCJo) May 17, 2020
On 12th May, the day before the family trust sold its shares, Hikma announced it’d launched a new anaesthetic drug in the US after receiving approval from regulators - named Propofol Injectable Emulsion, it can be used for patients in intensive care requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation. The drug is already on the US Food and Drug Administration's shortage list ”following a surge in demand due to the increase in hospitalised, ventilated patients resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Hikma shares were also sent surging boosted by US courts after it was ruled its generic version of the heart drug Vascepa didn’t infringe a rival's patents. Shareholders are also reaping the rewards, with dividends in 2019 in all 16 percent higher than in 2018.
“HMS Holding SAL, a family trust in which Said Darwazah and Mazen Darwazah are shareholders, has been liquidated leading to the sale of 1.35 million shares. Darhold, the family investment vehicle, continues to hold just over 63 million shares representing 26 per cent of Hikma's issued share capital,” a spokesperson said.
