The client is a leading drug development company with facilities spanning across more than 60 different countries. Founded in 1891, this client is one of the world’s seven largest pharmaceutical corporations, manufacturing products including vaccines for a variety of therapeutic areas, consumer products, and animal health products. The company has been one of EquipNet’s largest corporate clients for more than eight years, and we have worked on countless projects to aid in the management of its surplus assets.
Our client owned a 300,000 square foot chemical production facility in Albany, Georgia that was built on a 1,000 acre lot of real estate. Over time, the company had decided it would no longer need this facility, and started exploring options of how to rid of the costs and responsibilities of owning it. Theinitial goal was to sell the entire facility as-is, including the real estate and equipment.
The client envisioned a quick and easy transaction with a willing buyer, but was disappointed when no serious offers were received after many months of shopping the facility around. Although this was the company’s best option, unfortunately, time was not on its side. The longer it took to find a buyer, the more our client would have to spend out- of-pocket funds for expenses on the taxes associated with itsfacility, as well as the utilities and remaining staff.
Adding more complexity to its facility closure project, the soil surrounding the facility had become contaminated over the years, and thus had to be properly cleaned prior to selling the site as well. Faced with dwindling options and an unclear plan to meet the objectives, the client reached out toEquipNet for guidance.
EquipNet understood the client’s situation and proposed a new option to consider– demolishing the facility and selling the real estate, liquidating the equipment to cover all costs. From the onset of our involvement, we provided several project plans that would allow our client to liquidate its surplus assets, providing a cash flow large enough to offset the decontamination and demolition costs.
Once a project plan was decided, EquipNet provided the client with a number of onsite turnkey services. We were able to provide an inventory of the equipment in its Albany facility, redeploy assets to other facilities around the world, market and sell the assets through our online MarketPlace and full service auction department, and coordinate all customer pick- ups and shipments. All activity was managed and conducted by EquipNet personnel, leaving our client to utilize its resources for other designated tasks.
Over a two year span, EquipNet coordinated a strategic effort that allowed our client to address the decontamination costs and the forthcoming demolition costs, with proceeds from individual asset sales and a global webcast auction event. EquipNet delivered $1.1 million in individual asset sale proceeds, and $3 million from auction event proceeds – bringing the project’s total sale proceeds to $4.1 million. Our client could not have been more pleased with our service, especially since we managed to navigate our way through the turbulent waters of its proposed project, all while systematically achieving all of the company’s objectives.
