RHONE-POULENC RORER DEAL PAYS OFF

The French chemicals and pharmaceuticals group Rhone-Poulenc, which acquired the USA drugmaker Rorer at the start of 1990, estimates that the financial risk and the various undertakings given to Rorer shareholders to make the $3.3 billion purchase have now been justified.

Rhone-Poulenc paid the Rorer shareholders in three different ways; in cash ($1.7 billion), in Rhone-Poulenc Rorer shares and in contingent value rights which guarantee a certain share price at the end of an agreed period.

This risk could have involved Rhone-Poulenc Rorer in paying out anything up to $1 billion in the period to 1992, but this risk has now been cut by half because of the progress made by the new pharmaceutical entity formed by the merger.