Takeover rumors boost AstraZeneca shares

Speculation that Swiss drug giant Novartis was looking to make a bid for the UK's second-largest pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, pushed the latter's share price up 1.4% to L26.11 by close on February 21, with the stock having risen to L26.45 at one point.

Although the Swiss firm has declined to comment, and the majority of observers do not think that an acquisition is on the table, should such a merger occur, it would create the world's largest drugmaker by sales, ousting US giant Pfizer from the number one spot. However, it would come at a hefty price, since AstraZeneca has a market capitalization of over L41.0 billion ($71.53 billion, although that of Novartis is considerably more, at around L85.0 billion.