Surprise in the sale of Doliprane. While the negotiations between Sanofi and the American investment fund CD&R continue with a view to the sale of Opella, the non-prescription medicines subsidiary of the pharmaceutical group, the former contender, PAI Partners, is trying to get back into the race. This Thursday, October 17, the consortium led by the French investment fund presented a new offer to the board of directors of the French laboratory, increasing by 200 million euros the amount proposed during its previous attempt.
With this new offer, valid until Sunday night, and which would value the subsidiary of the pharmaceutical group at just under 16,000 million euros, PAI Partners hopes to reverse the situation in its favor, at a time when the possible approval of Doliprane under the American regime The flag provokes strong reactions among elected politicians of all stripes.
The French investment fund was excluded from the race last week after a bidding war with its rival. On Friday, October 11, Sanofi announced that it had decided to continue exclusive negotiations with CD&R to sell 50% of the capital of its consumer health division, Opella, which houses around a hundred brands, including the emblematic Doliprane. Much to the dismay of the consortium led by PAI Partners, which was supported by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADIA, Canadian pension fund BCI and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.
“Ambitious social commitments”
Disappointed, PAI Partners tried its luck again with an offer “improved” on a financial level, according to a source close to the fund, and “accompanied by a series of ambitious social commitments”. Among them would be, among others, the guarantee of maintaining employment at a constant level in the two French industrial centers of Opella, in Compiègne (Oise) and in Lisieux (Calvados), accompanied by a promise of investment of 60 million euros in five years.
PAI also believes that by repatriating the manufacturing of certain products, it can ensure double-digit growth in French factory volumes. The fund also plans to strengthen the capabilities of Compiègne, one of Opella’s four research and development centers in the world, to make it the group’s main R&D center. With the key, “an increase in personnel and resources assigned”continues this same source.
The French fund thus wants to show loud and clear its tricolor tropism to differentiate itself from its foreign competitor, believing that it has an offer. “highest bidder”. As the details of CD&R’s proposed commitments are unknown, it is difficult to predict the superiority of the offer presented by the investment fund.
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