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Johannesburg - Chile's CFR Pharmaceuticals slightly sweetened its takeover offer for drugmaker Adcock Ingram to R12.8bn in cash and stock on Friday, an attempt to win backing from the top shareholder.
The fate of the rare Chile-South Africa tie-up has been in doubt after Adcock's largest shareholder, state-owned Public Investment Corp (PIC), rejected the bid and local firm Bidvest launched a counter offer.
Bidvest, a sprawling conglomerate whose businesses include car sales and catering, has offered R4bn in cash for more than a third of Adcock, South Africa's second-largest drugmaker.
"We are quite confident that the new offer would satisfy the requirements of the PIC," CFR chief executive Alejandro Weinstein told reporters on a conference call, adding it had not yet approached PIC with the revised offer.
Santiago-based CFR initially offered R12.6bn in cash and shares, a bid PIC would have "probably" approved if it were all in cash, a source familiar with the fund's thinking has told Reuters.
Under the revised CFR offer, shareholders would receive R74.50 worth of cash and shares for each Adcock share, based on a value of R2.334 per new CFR share.
That is slightly higher than the R73.51 per share CFR offered last month.
The final ratio of cash to shares will only be determined after a pending rights issue by CFR.
The new offer is also aimed at fending off Bidvest, which went to straight to shareholders with a R70 per share cash offer earlier this month.
Bidvest has already built up its Adcock stake to about 7%, enough to torpedo the deal if PIC - which owns about 19% - is still not in favour of the revised offer.
The deal needs backing by shareholders holding 75% of Adcock to go through.
No-one at PIC was immediately available to comment.
Shares in Adcock hardly moved on the news.
The meeting where shareholders were due to vote on the CFR offer has been postponed from December 18 and would now be held by no later than January 15th, Adcock and CFR said in a statement.
The fate of the rare Chile-South Africa tie-up has been in doubt after Adcock's largest shareholder, state-owned Public Investment Corp (PIC), rejected the bid and local firm Bidvest launched a counter offer.
Bidvest, a sprawling conglomerate whose businesses include car sales and catering, has offered R4bn in cash for more than a third of Adcock, South Africa's second-largest drugmaker.
"We are quite confident that the new offer would satisfy the requirements of the PIC," CFR chief executive Alejandro Weinstein told reporters on a conference call, adding it had not yet approached PIC with the revised offer.
Santiago-based CFR initially offered R12.6bn in cash and shares, a bid PIC would have "probably" approved if it were all in cash, a source familiar with the fund's thinking has told Reuters.
Under the revised CFR offer, shareholders would receive R74.50 worth of cash and shares for each Adcock share, based on a value of R2.334 per new CFR share.
That is slightly higher than the R73.51 per share CFR offered last month.
The final ratio of cash to shares will only be determined after a pending rights issue by CFR.
The new offer is also aimed at fending off Bidvest, which went to straight to shareholders with a R70 per share cash offer earlier this month.
Bidvest has already built up its Adcock stake to about 7%, enough to torpedo the deal if PIC - which owns about 19% - is still not in favour of the revised offer.
The deal needs backing by shareholders holding 75% of Adcock to go through.
No-one at PIC was immediately available to comment.
Shares in Adcock hardly moved on the news.
The meeting where shareholders were due to vote on the CFR offer has been postponed from December 18 and would now be held by no later than January 15th, Adcock and CFR said in a statement.
