Major Evotec investor MAK Capital demands changes from management
FRANKFURT, April 6 (Reuters) - MAK Capital, a major investor in Germany's Evotec EVTG.DE, has presented a list of demands it wants the biotech firm to carry out, according to a filing on Monday.
A key demand is that the Hamburg-based company carve out Just Evotec Biologics, its contract development and manufacturing division, by listing it on a U.S. exchange in an initial public offering.
The filing is a letter dated April 2 and posted on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
It is addressed to Evotec's management and supervisory boards and signed by MAK Capital founder and CEO Michael Kaufman.
MAK Capital holds around 7% of Evotec shares.
"For the past five years, Evotec leadership has not acted with the speed or decisiveness necessary to generate positive returns for shareholders," the letter said.
MAK Capital also called on Evotec to accelerate restructuring and appoint industry executive Wolfgang Hofmann to the supervisory board.
"Our complaint is not that many mistakes have been made, rather that the company has been too slow to remedy them," the letter said.
The company's shares are down more than 85% over the past five years.
Evotec didn't immediately respond to a request for comment outside of business hours.
