Advent International outbids Cinven, Bain with €3.6-bn offer for Stada Arzneimittel

US private equity firm Advent International has entered the fray to buy German generic drug maker Stada Arzneimittel AG by tabling a €3.6-billion ($3.8 billion) binding offer.

The move comes less than two weeks after Stada said that it has received two takeover offers including a €3.5-billion bid from private equity firm Cinven Partners LLP. (See: German generic drugmaker Stada receives $3.83-bn takeover bid from Cinven Partners) Advent has offered to pay €8.00 per share in cash plus €0.70 per share dividend, and said that its offer is limited until Monday 27 February 2017, and subject to the approval of the company's board.

"The Executive Board will review the offer in the best interest of the company and will continue the open-minded talks with all interested parties," Stada said in a statement.

Earlier Cinven had offered to pay €56 per share while reports said that Bain Capital had offered €58.

Advent said that it has no intention to sell off significant parts of the business or to split the company and its long-term strategy will focus on developing new growth areas and the targeted acceleration of its international expansion.

''The geographic focus will be on markets where STADA already has a leading position, particularly Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, Belgium and Russia. Advent has also identified additional growth potential through expansion and investments in Asia and Latin America,'' it said in a statement.

German activist investor Active Ownership Capital, with a 7-per cent stake, has been in a year-long effort to improve Stada's profitability and succeeded in ousting the company's chairman during annual meeting late last year.

Founded in Dresden in 1895 as a cooperative pharmacy, Stada specialises in the production of generic and over-the-counter drugs.

Stada has expanded internationally since 1986 by buying companies in Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Britain, Russia Serbia, Portugal, and Asia.

Generics generate 58 per cent while branded products 40 per cent of the company's annual sales of €2.12 billion.