The Perrigo Company (NASDAQ: PRGO)(TASE: PRGO) today announced the appointment by the Board of Directors of Ran Gottfried as a new director of the Company. Mr. Gottfried was appointed to serve for a term expiring on the date of the annual meeting in 2006.
David T. Gibbons, Perrigo Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Ran Gottfried has an outstanding background in establishing and growing a variety of businesses. His extensive planning, systems, and operations expertise and executive leadership will allow him to fulfill an important role as a member of the Perrigo Board. We are pleased to welcome Ran to Perrigo."
Mr. Gottfried, 61, is a consultant and director for private and public companies in Israel in the areas of retailing and distribution, pharmaceuticals, and telecommunications. He is also Chairman of Magnolia Silver Jewelry Ltd, a company engaged in retail sales of silver jewelry. From 2004, Mr. Gottfried has served as an advisor to Careline-Neca, a consumer division of the Company's Perrigo Israel subsidiary. Mr. Gottfried was also a director of Agis Industries (1983) Ltd, one of Israel's largest pharmaceutical companies, from 2003 until its acquisition by Perrigo in March 2005. Since 1974, he has founded or led five companies specializing in import/export of household products and fresh foods, the development of telecommunications products, and retail chain store sales of cosmetics, perfume and jewelry. Mr. Gottfried is also a director of Bezeq, Israel's leading telecommunications provider.
The Company also announced that the Board of Directors has authorized the repurchase of an additional $60 million of the Company's common stock through February 16, 2007 under its ongoing share repurchase program. This amount is in addition to the previous authorization of $30 million, any remaining balance of which will expire on April 26, 2006. Under share repurchase programs since November 2000, Perrigo has repurchased 7.7 million shares at a cost of approximately $92 million. As of February 17, 2006, Perrigo had 93,132,000 common shares outstanding.
The Perrigo Company is a leading global healthcare supplier and the world's largest manufacturer of over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceutical and nutritional products for the store brand market. Store brand products are sold by food, drug, mass merchandise, dollar store and club store retailers under their own labels. The Company also develops, manufactures and markets prescription generic drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients and consumer products, and operates manufacturing facilities in the United States, Israel, United Kingdom, Mexico and Germany. Visit Perrigo on the Internet (http://www.perrigo.com/ ).
Note: Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and are subject to the safe harbor created thereby. These statements relate to future events or the Company's future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements of the Company or its industry to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or other comparable terminology. Please see the "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" on pages 33 - 41 of the Company's Form 10-K for the year ended June 25, 2005, as well as the Company's subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, for a discussion of certain important factors that relate to forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
SOURCE: Perrigo Company
CONTACT: Ernest J. Schenk, Manager, Investor Relations and Communication
of Perrigo Company, +1-269-673-9212, E-mail: eschenk@perrigo.com
Web site: http://www.perrigo.com/