UPDATE - Guerin's role in Sanofi-Synthelabo terminated; earnings rise 58%

Herve Guerin, the ex-chief executive of Synthelabo which merged withSanofi last year (Marketletters passim), has been removed from the positions of vice-chairman and chief operating officer at the new entity. Sanofi-Synthelabo issued a statement saying that "it now seems preferable to regroup management for the whole entity under a single head," ie the chairman Jean-Francois Dehecq, and has "decided to terminate the mandate" of Mr Guerin in the aforementioned posts. He will remain as a director of the company.

The statement went on to thank Mr Guerin "for the quality of his management and his very positive contribution to the merger," but his departure ends months of speculation about perceived boardroom friction between Mr Guerin and Mr Dehecq. Speculation has it that the former wished to replace Mr Dehecq as chief executive and an insider at the company told the Marketletter that Mr Guerin's position had forced the board to act. However, Mr Guerin told the Wall Street Journal that the decision to remove him "had come as a complete surprise."

Mr Dehecq was not in expansive mood at Sanofi-Synthelabo's analysts' meeting in London regarding the ousting of Mr Guerin, but concentrated instead on the group's half-year earnings report, which showed a 58% rise in net profits to 447 million euros ($402.7 million) with operating profit up 53% to 675 million euros. Earlier in the summer, Sanofi-Synthelabo announced six-month sales of 10.1% to 2.87 billion euros on a consolidated basis (Marketletter July 31).