Zentiva fails to delist Sicomed

The Czech drug maker Zentiva only managed to buy just under half of the 49% stake which it did not hold in Sicomed, during its tender offer run on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, the results of which were revealed on Tuesday. The Czechs will therefore be unable to delist Sicomed. Zentiva offered a 1.37 RON/share price for the shares purchased during this operation, paying out more than 37 million euros. The transactions conducted during this offer were reported on Tuesday, after the tender offer had been extended twice. Zentiva”s offer was adamantly challenged by the US-based investment fund QVT Fund which requested, among other things, that the offer be invalidated on the grounds that the price was too low. The disagreement between the companies was due to the trend followed by the RON/USD exchange rate from the time when Zentiva took over the controlling interests in Sicomed until the moment when it put out the tender offer for the rest of the shares. QVT owns more than 12.5% in Sicomed, according to the latest information on the market, and announced it did not subscribe during this offer. ZF