Sanofi extends deadline for Genzyme

ris December 14, 2010, 0:48 IST

Sanofi-Aventis SA, the French drugmaker making a hostile bid for Genzyme Corp, extended the deadline for the US biotechnology company’s shareholders to tender their stock to January 21.

The offer of $69 a share, or about $18.5 billion, was set to expire on December 10. About 2.2 million shares, or 0.9 per cent of the stock outstanding, had been tendered by the midnight deadline, the Paris-based company said in a statement today.

“This allows for more time to find the right price and for Genzyme to start opening its doors to Sanofi,” Eric Le Berrigaud, an analyst at Raymond James in Paris, said in a telephone interview today. He has a “buy” recommendation on Sanofi shares.

Sanofi, France’s largest drugmaker, took its offer for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Genzyme directly to shareholders on October 4, after the US company’s chief executive officer, Henri Termeer, spurned the bid as too low and refused to negotiate. The offer, made public on August 29, undervalues Genzyme’s stable of experimental drugs and ignores expected revenue growth.