The new offer from the French fund PAI Partners will not change Sanofi’s choice in the sale of its subsidiary Opella, which markets Doliprane. The president of the pharmaceutical group, Audrey Duval, announced on Saturday, October 19, that Sanofi is finalizing discussions on this matter with the American fund CD&R, in an interview published in the picardy mail.
“Following a traditional process, a partner was identified ten days ago. We are finalizing talks with him. “It is a growth project.”assured M.me Duvaldo. Sanofi announced on October 11 that it was negotiating with the American investment fund CD&R to potentially sell 50% of Opella, its subsidiary that markets a hundred brands of over-the-counter products worldwide, including Doliprane. But this announcement quickly took a political and social turn.
The unions fear a “social breakdown” for the 1,700 jobs that Opella has on French soil, of which 480 in Compiègne (Oise) and 250 in Lisieux (Calvados). A strike movement was launched in both factories on Thursday and Friday. In Mourenx (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), a company that employs around sixty people and works twenty-four hours a day, the strike manifests itself in successive stoppages, during each working hour.
“Written commitments”
Based on this challenge, the consortium led by the French investment fund PAI Partners – supported by the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund, ADIA, the Canadian pension fund BCI and the Singapore sovereign fund, GIC – had presented new offers to the council of administration. of the French laboratory, increasing by 200 million euros the amount proposed in its previous attempt.
This new offer also provided for the guarantee of maintaining employment at a constant level in Opella’s two French industrial centers, in Compiègne (Oise) and Lisieux (Calvados), accompanied by a promise of investment of 60 million euros over five years.
But this new proposal was quickly rejected by Sanofi. On Thursday night, the pharmaceutical laboratory was surprised with an offer presented “ “outside the deadlines and the governance process that governed the decision”before remembering that the candidates had “everyone had the same opportunity to present their best offer” within the allotted time.
For several days, the Government has been trying to reassure about the future of the French Opella plants by increasing the number of declarations on the written commitments requested from interested parties regarding employment and security of supply. But the executive, who still shows his desire for reindustrialization, does not want to scare away foreign investors either.
“This government is committed to maintaining Doliprane in France”Economy Minister Antoine Armand said on Wednesday, adding that “maintaining employment is the absolute priority and will not be negotiable”. But “If we really want France to be at the forefront of research, of industry, to be sovereign over all health technologies and not only that, do we collectively believe that we can do without public and private financing? »asked. “Our objective is not to block the sale, it is to obtain written commitments through dialogue”Maud Bregeon, government spokesperson, summarized Thursday.
