Galapagos NV Announces Appointment of New CFO and Board Member; Creates New Warrant Plan
MECHELEN, BELGIUM--(MARKET WIRE)--Jun 3, 2009 -- Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG) announced today that its Annual General Shareholders' meeting held on 2 June 2009 approved Dr. Werner Cautreels' appointment to the Board of Directors. Galapagos also announced the appointment of Guillaume Jetten as Chief Financial Officer, effective 1 July 2009. Mr. Jetten succeeds Leo Steenbergen, who will continue to serve as Galapagos' CFO until July and will assist in the transition process. Furthermore, Galapagos stated that the Extraordinary General Shareholders' Meeting (EGM) held on 2 June 2009 approved the offer of 135,100 warrants for the benefit of directors and new CFO of the Company.
Leo Steenbergen joined Galapagos as CFO in June 2007, with the mission to restructure the finance operations to support sustainability and further growth of the business. As Galapagos has achieved a profitable turnaround of the service division and completed its reorganization and consolidation activities, he has accomplished this mission and will be leaving the Company to pursue other projects.
Before joining Galapagos, Guillaume Jetten (41) was Executive Board Member and CFO of SDU Holding BV, a privately owned company specialized in publishing and identification documents, where he played a key role in the Company's transition from a state owned firm since joining in 2007. Previously, he was CFO of Wolters Kluwer Health in Chicago, where he drove initiatives to improve global financial and operating processes and create synergies of scale. He also served as Vice President Group Accounting at Wolters Kluwer NV and held positions with increasing level of responsibilities at Merck, Sharpe & Dohme BV. Mr. Jetten holds a masters degree in economics from the University of Maastricht and is a Certified Registered Accountant.
"I would like to thank Leo for his key role in restructuring the Group's finance activities and for building a finance department with the right tools and expertise to support Galapagos' future development," said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. "As our newly appointed CFO, Guillaume brings a strong track record of promoting sustainable business results, an important asset for Galapagos as we continue to deliver substantial growth going forward."
Galapagos also announced that its Annual General Shareholders' Meeting held on 2 June 2009 approved the appointment of Dr. Werner Cautreels as a new Independent Director on the Board of Directors for a period until the 2010 Annual Shareholders' meeting. Laurent Ganem, MD and Geoff McMillan will no longer serve on Galapagos' Board of Directors.
Werner Cautreels (56) is Global CEO of Solvay Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. He joined Solvay Pharmaceuticals in 1998 as Global Head of Research and Development and was appointed CEO in January 2005. Prior to joining Solvay he was employed by Sanofi, Sterling Winthrop and Nycomed-Amersham in a variety of R&D management positions in Europe and in the United States. Dr. Cautreels holds a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Antwerp, Belgium.
"We are very pleased that Werner has joined our Board of Directors," commented van de Stolpe. "The extensive pharma background that Werner brings to Galapagos will be of great value in making the right decisions with regard to the large product portfolio that Galapagos is building."
Furthermore, Galapagos announced that its EGM held on 2 June 2009 approved the "Warrant Plan 2009 (B)", creating (subject to acceptance) 135,100 warrants for the benefit of the directors and the new CFO of the company. These warrants have an exercise period of five years starting as of the date of the offer. The warrants, offered on 2 June 2009, have an exercise price of EUR 7.09 (thirty days average closing price of the share on Euronext Brussels preceding date of the offer), they are not transferable and cannot be exercised prior to the end of the third calendar year after the year in which they were granted to the beneficiaries. Each warrant gives the right to subscribe to one new Galapagos share. Should the warrants be exercised, Galapagos will apply for the listing of the resulting new shares on a regulated stock market. The warrants as such will not be admitted to listing on any stock market.
About Galapagos
Galapagos (Euronext: GLPG; OTC: GLPYY) is a drug discovery and development company with small molecule programs in bone and joint diseases, bone metastasis, cachexia, anti-infectives and metabolic diseases. It has established risk sharing alliances with GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Eli Lilly and Merck. Through an alliance with MorphoSys, Galapagos is also developing new antibody therapies in bone and joint diseases. Its division BioFocus DPI offers a full suite of target-to-drug discovery products and services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies and to patient foundations, encompassing target discovery and validation, screening and drug discovery through to delivery of pre-clinical candidates. Galapagos currently employs 490 people and operates facilities in six countries, with global headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium. More info at: www.glpg.com.
Galapagos NV Onno van de Stolpe, CEO Tel: +31 6 2909 8028 ir@glpg.com
This release may contain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "could," "stands to," and "continues," as well as similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which might cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Galapagos, or industry results, to be materially different from any historic or future results, financial conditions, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, the reader is advised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of publication of this document. Galapagos expressly disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements in this document to reflect any change in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, unless required by law or regulation.
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