STADA in 485M euro bid for Serbian firm

German drugmaker STADA Arzneimittel AG plans to take over the Serbian pharmaceuticals group Hemofarm. To this end, STADA will submit a public takeover offer to the Commission for Securities of the Republic of Serbia for all 3.3 million shares of the company which has been listed on the stock exchange in Belgrade since 2002. Hemofarm's management has welcomed STADA's takeover offer.

Under the terms of the proposal, which is valid for 21 days from July 14 (the day of the announcement), STADA is offering approximately 146.97 euros for each Hemofarm share, which corresponds to a total purchase price for 100% of the company of 485.0 million euros ($617.7 million). STADA will finance the acquisition via existing credit lines.

The execution of the takeover offer still requires the approval of the Serbian Securities Commission, as well as the responsible antitrust authorities. In addition, the deal is only valid if a minimum of 67% of the shares are sold within the framework of the public takeover offer.