Sigma names Jeff Sells as company CFO

Beleaguered Victorian drug and healthcare company Sigma Pharmaceuticals has appointed former group treasurer Jeff Sells as its new CFO.

Sells has over 20 years management experience in Australia and was most recently the CFO of Citadel Resource Group for two years, before which he spent four years as the CFO of resources company Oxiana.

Group treasurer with Sigma between 2002 and 2004, Sells rejoins the company at a challenging time. For the year ending January 31, 2010 Sigma posted a $389 million loss, while last month it revealed that its generics business was $6.4 million under budget, leading some analysts to downgrade the company from neutral to under-perform.

South African drug giant Aspen Pharmacare Holdings made an offer to buy Sigma in May for $0.60 per share, but this month downgraded its offer to $0.55 per share. The revised offer was rejected by Sigma, after which Aspen was rumoured to be contemplating abandoning the deal.

Investors responded favourably to today’s announcement with Sigma’s shares closing today up 1.01 percent to $0.46 on trade of 1.18 million.