Sanofi management plans to move headquarters abroad

The management of drug maker Sanofi is planning to move its headquarters abroad in the last few months but the plan was mixed by the drugmaker’s chairman, the reports said, citing sources close to the board.

First mooted in July, when the Socialist government was preparing to introduce a 75% tax on the top earnings, the plan envisaged moving the headquarters to London or the U.S., or atleast relocating Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher and his closest associates abroad. Sanofi was not immediately available for the comment and several of the company’s top executives are foreign and spend most of their time travelling abroad.

Besides, German-Canadian Viehbacher, they include Elias Zerhourni, an Algerian-born American in charge of research and development and Hanspeter Spek, the German-born President of global operations.

Italian Roberto Pucci, Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Karen Linehan, Sanofi’s American-born general counsel, are also part of the executive committee.

Sanofi, which is reshuffling its French research operations at the cost of 900 jobs, would not be the first French company to consider moving the top executives abroad.

The French industrial conglomerate Schneider Electric has kept its headquarters near Paris, but its top managers include Chief Executive Jean-Pascal Tricoire, relocated to HongKong last year in a move to be closer to the fast-growing markets in Asia.

The industry minister Arnaud Montebourg who had opposed the reorganization of Sanofi’s research activities in France, was cited by the newspapers as stating that he hoped that the plan was just a rumour. Sanofi is a French multinational pharmaceutical company based in Paris.

The company is engaged in R&D, manufacturing, and marketing of pharmaceuticals products for sale in the prescription market. It covers 7 major therapeutic areas including cardiovascular, central nervous system, diabetes, internal medicine, oncology, thrombosis and vaccines.