Chris Viehbacher, Chief Executive Officer of Sanofi, delivers a speech at the beginning of the company's 2013 annual results press conference in Paris, February 6, 2014.
PARIS (Reuters) - Sanofi Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher has defended his transformation of the French drugmaker and has written to the company's board urging it to clarify rumors he faces dismissal, Les Echos newspaper reported on Monday.
The newspaper published on its website what it said was a copy of Viehbacher's letter, which Reuters could not immediately authenticate.
Viehbacher, Sanofi's first non-French boss, has transformed the company since he took over in 2008. He made it more international, led a replenishment of its pipeline of new drugs and gradually earned investors' trust. The stock has more than doubled in the past six years with him at the helm.
However the Les Echos report cited concerns among unnamed directors that the CEO was running the French drugmaker as much from Boston - where he moved several months ago - as from Paris.
French union representatives have criticized Viehbacher for cutting jobs locally and say they fear more damage is set to come as the company seeks ways to offload a 6.3 billion euro ($8 billion) portfolio of mature drugs, most of which are produced in France.
"It has come to my attention, first through rumor, that the Chairman of the Board is actively seeking a successor to me as Chief Executive Officer," read the letter, dated Sept. 4, which appeared in English on Les Echos' website but on which the company declined comment.
The letter from the German-Canadian CEO said he had since had a discussion with the chairman and two other board members, but did not say what the outcome was, beyond saying he had not been given any indication of strategic disagreements.
In response to an earlier newspaper report of boardroom tension, Sanofi's board had said Viehbacher's succession was not on the agenda of a meeting later on Monday, which was scheduled ahead of third-quarter results on Tuesday.
FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL
The letter also shows Viehbacher defending his achievements and arguing that changing CEO could be detrimental to the interests of both shareholders and senior executives working at his side.
"I have worked hard and traveled long distances over the past five years to rebuild a Sanofi that is financially successful ... I ask you not to put this development at risk and that we have a dialogue about what the board would like to see going forward," the letter read.
"I am concerned about the impact of rumors and would hope to have the situation clarified as soon as possible," it added.
Sanofi shares were down 0.9 percent at 11.18 a.m. EDT, underperforming the STOXX Europe 600 healthcare sector index which was down 0.1 percent.
A source familiar with the matter, speaking before Les Echos published the letter, pointed to the CEO's support among investors and "extremely positive" track record.
"He's had a huge success in rebuilding Sanofi. There are some fantasies about Sanofi's Americanization, but in fact Sanofi is now a global company," the source said.
Deutsche Bank analyst Mark Clark said Viehbacher had turned Sanofi into an investable stock from a previously "overly Franco-centric, frankly un-shareholder-friendly" one.
"It would be a retrograde step if it was simply - as the press reports suggest - a question of where the CEO lives," he said. "If that's the criterion for changing CEO I think a lot of people will be disappointed."
As leader of Sanofi, Viehbacher slimmed down its in-house research which he said was not productive enough and sought to offset competition from generic versions of its own drugs by betting on biotechnologies, consumer and animal health.
With its $20 billion acquisition of Genzyme and a flurry of partnerships with other U.S. biotech groups and institutes, Sanofi has become a more international company, causing some to worry about the company's future in its home market.
There are other hurdles ahead for a company whose earnings repeatedly disappointed last year. Its best-selling drug, diabetes treatment Lantus - which accounts for more than a fifth of sales and a third of operating profit - is set to lose patent protection early next year.
Sanofi has sought to regain investors' confidence by replenishing its pipeline of new drugs, including with a potential blockbuster cholesterol treatment, a follow-on to Lantus, and the world's first dengue vaccine.
