Bain, Cinven to sweeten Stada offer to €66.25 a share

Stada said on Monday that private equity firms Bain Capital and Cinven are prepared to raise their offer for the German pharmaceutical group.

The consortium is set to bump up its offer 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 would be dropped to 63% from 75% and there would be a shorter acceptance period of four weeks.

"The management board and the supervisory board hold the view that consenting to the exemption from the exclusion period is in the best interest of the company and its stakeholders.

"After having reviewed the parameters of an envisaged renewed voluntary public takeover offer as communicated by Nidda Healthcare Holding AG, the management board and the supervisory board agree that the renewed offer has been improved compared to the first one with regard to material aspects."

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 1120 BST, Stada shares were up 1.6% to €65.50.