Ranbaxy bids for Merck KGaA's generics arm

19 March 2007

Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories says that it has tabled a bid for the generics unit of Germany's Merck KGaA, but did not reveal how much it was offering. Anayalsts at Lehman Brothers ascribe to Merck's generics arm a net present value of $3.2 billion, and expect interested parties to make bids in the $5.0 billion to $6.5 billion range. Last month, Merck said that it had begun contacting companies that may be interested in acquiring its generics operations, with Iceland's Actavis being the only other firm to have publicly expressed an interest. Despite this, Merck's share price fell 0.8% to 93.42 euros in trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

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