LONDON, May 2 — US drugmaker Pfizer Inc has raised its offer for AstraZeneca Plc to £63 billion (RM346.1 billion), it said today, adding that the British drugmaker was reviewing the proposal.
Pfizer’s pursuit of AstraZeneca to create the world’s biggest pharmaceuticals company comes amid a wave of deal-making in the healthcare sector.
The £50 a share indicative offer comes after AstraZeneca had rebuffed a proposal valuing it at US$98.9 billion (RM322.7 billion), or £46.61 a share.
“Anything with a five in front is more likely to work than anything with a four in front, just from a sentiment point of view,” said analyst Stephen McGarry at Societe Generale.
Investors had previously said they were looking for at least £50 a share and also wanted more cash in the mix. The latest deal would offer 32 per cent cash and 68 per cent shares, little different from the 30-70 split offered originally.
Buying AstraZeneca would boost Pfizer’s pipeline of cancer drugs and create significant cost and tax savings.
But the takeover, which would be the largest acquisition of British company by a foreign business, has stirred political controversy in Britain.
In an attempt to smooth relations with the government, Pfizer chief executive Ian Read wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron, promising to complete a substantial new research centre planned by AstraZeneca in Cambridge and retain a manufacturing plant in Macclesfield.
Read also said that 20 per cent of the enlarged group’s workforce would be in Britain.
Pfizer said AstraZeneca had indicated it would respond after its board had reviewed the proposal, under which shareholders would receive, for each AstraZeneca share, 1.845 shares in the combined company and £15.98 in cash. — Reuters
