French drugmaker Sanofi has sent a letter to the head of Medivation, a San Francisco-based group that specialises in cancer treatments, offering to buy the company for $52.50 a share in a deal valued at around $9.3bn.
The move comes after David Hung, the chief executive of Medivation, who is also on the US drugmaker’s board, told Sanofi earlier this month that his company was not interested in discussing a transaction.
Setting out details of its all-cash proposal, Sanofi said a combination of the two groups “represents a compelling strategic and financial opportunity to drive significant value for the respective companies’ shareholders, employees, patients and caregivers”.
It says its proposed purchase price “represents a premium of over 50 percent to Medivation’s two-month volume weighted average price (VWAP) prior to there being takeover rumors”.
Here are a few extracts of today’s letter to Mr Hung, who is Medivation’s president as well as chief executive from Olivier Brandicourt, head of Sanofi:
Dear David,
It has been over a month since we first talked and I expressed my view that a combination would make strong strategic sense, and I said we were prepared to make a very attractive proposal. During our first call on March 25, you said that you were unwilling to meet, and in our subsequent conversation on April 3 you said that, after a review with your Board, there was no interest in discussing a transaction. Given your unwillingness to meet or to hear our proposal, we sent you a letter on Friday, April 15, setting forth a proposal (the “Proposal”) to acquire Medivation for $52.50 per share in cash, representing a premium of over 50% to the two-month volume weighted average trading price (VWAP) prior to there being takeover rumors. We have not heard anything from you for almost two weeks, other than an acknowledgment of receipt of our letter.
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