Speculation that French pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Synthelabo is preparing a hostile bid for Aventis intensified Friday with a report that key Sanofi shareholder L'Oreal would hold a board meeting to consider an offer.
A merger or takeover involving Sanofi-Synthelabo and Aventis would create one of the biggest pharmaceutical groups in the world.
Officials at both groups have denied that merger contacts are under way, although a source close to the matter said Aventis had retained two US investment banks to help prepare a defense in the event a bid is made.
Sanofi, responding on Thursday to a German newspaper report that a merger between the two pharmaceutical groups was close to being concluded, insisted it was not negotiating with Aventis. But it also said it continued to consider any deal that could strengthen its business.
The French newspaper Le Figaro reported that the board of cosmetics group L'Oreal, which owns 19.5 percent of Sanofi, would meet Saturday to study a possible bid by Sanofi for Aventis, a French-German company.
Le Figaro, which did not provide sources for its report, affirmed that a big transaction between Sanofi and Aventis was in the wind.
While analysts and investors had taken the view that Sanofi and Aventis might agree to a friendly merger, the newspaper said an unwelcome bid by Sanofi now seemed more likely.
The New York Times, according to a note from brokers Raymond James, said Sanofi could launch a hostile bid for Aventis worth 47.24 billion euros (US$60 billion).
Another broker observed that such an offer would represent a premium of only 5 percent or 6 percent over Aventis's current stock price, given the weakness of the dollar.
In Frankfurt, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quoted Aventis chairman Igor Landau as saying his company was not in merger talks with Sanofi, and in Paris he was quoted by the newspaper Le Monde as saying he did not believe that Sanofi would make a takeover bid.
"There's not the slightest contact between us," he told Le Monde in editions to appear today. "There have never been serious discussions on this matter."
He also dismissed the likelihood that a hostile bid was being considered.
"Unsollicited mergers are rare in pharmaceuticals," he said.
Nonetheless, Aventis has engaged two US investment banks, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, to help prepare its defense in the event of a takeover bid by Sanofi, a source close to matter told reporters.
Officials at Aventis were not immediately available for comment.
A shareholder agreement between L'Oreal and French oil group Total in Sanofi expires on Dec. 2. Total owns 24.4 percent of Sanofi but has indicated it would like to sell the holding because pharmaceuticals are not central to its business.
L'Oreal declined to comment on the report that its board would meet, and so did the Swiss group Nestle, which holds three of 14 seats on the board of L'Oreal. Nestle controls 26.3 percent of L'Oreal.
Sanofi shares were unchanged from Thursday at 53.20 euros in late-day trade Friday after falling sharply earlier in the day, while those of Aventis had gained 2.12 percent to 57.80 euros.
"It's always the predator who falls and the target who rises," noted one Paris trader.
Another broker commented: "Some people think that this is a good time for Sanofi to acquire Aventis by paying in shares since the capitalization of both groups is roughly at the same level."
"As no one is denying a scenario in which an offer would be made, while insisting that no negotiations are under way, investors are betting on a hostile bid," the broker said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day