Advent, Shanghai Pharma have not approached Stada – sources

By Alexander Hübner and Pamela Barbaglia

FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) – German drug company Stada Arzneimittel AG has not been approached by Advent International or Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding with a counter offer, two sources close to the matter told Reuters on Monday.

Rival buyout firms Bain and Cinven had offered to buy Stada in April, which seemed to end the contest to acquire the generic drug maker, but Bloomberg reported on Monday that Advent and Shanghai Pharmaceuticals are considering making an offer.

Bain and Cinven’s offer of 65.28 euros per share and a dividend of 0.72 euros per Stada share was a surprisingly large increase on a previous bid and valued the company at about 5.3 billion euros (4.5 billion pounds).

Bloomberg reported that Advent and Shanghai Pharmaceuticals are discussing a potential bid of about 70 euros a share, citing people familiar with the matter.

However, Reuters’ sources said a fresh bid from the duo is unlikely.

“Shanghai Pharmaceuticals is expected to struggle to secure the financing for a possible counterbid,” the sources said. “They don’t have much time left to challenge Bain and Cinven.”

Advent and Stada declined to comment and Reuters was unable to contact Shanghai Pharmaceuticals outside business hours.

(Additional reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman)