Actavis launches unsolicited acquisition proposal for Pliva

By Angela McDaniels

Seattle, March 17 - Actavis Group has submitted a preliminary proposal to Pliva d.d. to acquire all outstanding Pliva stock for Croatia kuna 570 per share.

The cash price is a 35% premium over the average Pliva share price during the last three months and values Pliva at about $1.6 billion, according to an Actavis news release.

In its own release, Pliva said it does not believe the proposal "adequately reflects the fundamental value and future prospects of the company" and noted that the price is a premium of less than 12% over its closing share price on Thursday.

Pliva further noted that it has materially improved its profitability prospects through the recent divestment of its loss-making proprietary businesses and has made significant progress in its manufacturing consolidation program through the divestment of its production plant in Germany.

Actavis said the combined company would form the third-largest generic pharmaceuticals company in the world and that the significantly increased scale would provide an opportunity to optimize manufacturing, distribution and overhead.

"The two companies operate in a rapidly consolidating industry where geographic reach, product pipeline depth and cost-effective manufacturing are the keys to success in a global marketplace," Actavis president and chief executive officer Robert Wessman said in the release.

"We hope that we can enter into a positive and constructive dialogue with Pliva's management and supervisory board in the coming days and work towards bringing our businesses together to create an even greater value proposition for shareholders, management, employees and the local community."

Pliva is based in Zagreb, Croatia, and discovers, develops, produces and distributes generic and niche pharmaceutical products.

Actavis is a generic pharmaceuticals company based in Reykjavik, Iceland.

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