Bain and Cinven sweeten offer for Stada

Private equity firms Bain Capital and Cinven have sweetened their offer for German pharmaceutical group Stada.

The consortium bumped its offer up by €0.25 to €66.25 per share after it applied for an exemption from a one-year exclusion period to submit a renewed voluntary public takeover with the German markets regulator, BaFin.

Under the new offer, the minimum acceptance threshold has been reduced to 63% from 75%, with an acceptance period of four weeks.

Stada said on Wednesday: "The executive board and the supervisory board will examine the offer document carefully in the best interest of the company and its stakeholders and issue a reasoned statement on the offer…As of today, both boards expect to be able to recommend the renewed offer for acceptance to the shareholders."

Last month, the consortium's takeover offer failed to win the required shareholder support, achieving 65.62% acceptance, which fell short of the revised 67.5% minimum hurdle, which was dropped down from 75%.

At 1010 BST, Stada shares were up 0.4% to €65.36.