Increase coincides with release of details of executives' salaries
Hadeel al Sayegh
Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries is up more than 5 per cent in the past two days, overcoming a strong negative trend in the region.
But market watchers lauded the company for something more impressive: it has published its annual report on the Abu Dhabi bourse website.
The vast majority of corporate governance reports in the UAE are filed to the regulator, the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), but not posted for the public to review.
Gulf Pharmaceutical, also known as Julphar, included the salaries paid to its top executives in its report for last year, along with the names of board members and their salaries. For most public companies in the UAE, this information remains shielded from public view.
Julphar is not only the first manufacturing pharmaceutical company in the UAE, but the only pharmaceutical producer of its size and scale in the Gulf. Established in 1980 under the guidance of Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed, Ruler of Ras al Khaimah, Julphar was intended to make the UAE self-sufficient in all its therapeutic needs and provide quality medicine at affordable prices. Today, the company has nine production facilities in the UAE, and its products are marketed in more than 45 countries.
Julphar closed up 0.9 per cent at Dh2.06 yesterday.
The company said it would have its general assembly next month, during which it would hold the elections for its board member candidates. It noted that board members can serve a maximum of only three years and disclosed the names of other companies in which board members also serve. The firm said it paid out a total of Dh1.65 million in compensation and bonuses to board members in 2009, adding that compensation for last year will be decided during the general assembly.
Julphar started implementing corporate governance codes as stipulated by the SCA in 2008. Other companies have been slower to adopt the procedures.
