Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) is reportedly among the companies considering a bid for German generics giant RatioPharm GmbH, which said a "structured sale process" has begun.
The Merckle family's investment arm, Vermoegensverwaltung (VEM) said that it hopes to sell RatioPharm, the world's fourth largest generics company, as a single unit, rather than break it up. A sale of the whole company to a single buyer is VEM's preferred option. "Bloomberg" reports that VEM hopes to cut a deal for up to €3 billion.
VEM does not rule out breaking up RatioPharm, but said that it prefers selling the company in one piece.
Tthe 15 potential bidders include Teva, Sanofi-Aventis SA (NYSE: SNY; Euronext: SAN) and Mylan Inc. (NYSE: MYL).
RatioPharm lenders Germany's Commerzbank AG (DAX: CBK) and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (LSE: RBS) are managing the sale.
VEM said that detailed sales prospectuses will be sent to potential buyers in early October, and that it will review the responses in the following weeks. VEM reiterated that it expects to close a sale during the first quarter of 2010 at the earliest.
RatioPharm had €1.7 billion in sales in 2008.
Teva's share closed at $51.82 on Nasdaq yesterday. The share rose 0.2% in morning trading on the TASE today to NIS 193.90.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 22, 2009
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