Thursday, October 21, 2010

Merial Antitrust-Driven Divestiture Bids Due In About One Month: Reuters


More details are emerging about the process, via Reuters:

. . . .Bidders are being offered the chance to buy products with about $500 million in combined annual sales, the people said, either in a single bundle or in several smaller packages.

Prospective buyers have received information packs and have about a month to lodge indicative bids, the people added. Morgan Stanley is handling the auction. . . .

In May 2010, Vetnosis, a consultancy, said it saw portfolio overlaps [between Merck and Sanofi's Merial] in vaccines for livestock, poultry, pets and horses; in products to kill parasites; and in specialty veterinary products, such as drugs to treat cardiovascular disorders. . . .

This could presage a filing of the deal with the ECC and the FTC -- as early as mid-next month, then. Clearly the companies want to be able to tell the competition regulators that they are proactively addressing the obvious potential for monopoly power (as reported here, as early as February 2010) in many of these markets. We'll keep yuou posted.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You can bet your boot straps the sales drop of Frontline, Merck(Intervet-SPAH) are playing hard ball w/ Sanofi(Merial).