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2008-09-29 Belviport Trading buys 6.08% of Zentiva shares

Belviport Trading Ltd. has acquired 6.08 percent of shares and voting rights of Czech drug maker Zentiva, Zentiva spokeswoman Vera Kudynova told CTK Friday.

Stakes of other large shareholders of Zentiva have remained unchanged, according to available information.

Belviport Trading informed the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) to abide by the Dutch law that it owned 2.32 million shares of Zentiva as of Sept 19 this year.

Sanofi-Aventis of France owns 24.9 percent of Zentiva shares, PPF and the partner Italian insurer Generali hold 19.2 percent and Fervent Holdings of the group J&T control 7.6 percent of the stock.

Sanofi-Aventis said on Monday it wanted to raise its takeover bid for Zentiva to Kc1,150 per share, Kc100 higher than the previous offer.

The new price is 25.5 percent higher than the price at which Zentiva's stock closed trading on April 30, 2008.

Zentiva was thus appraised at some EUR1.8bn (Kc43.2bn).

Zentiva's board recommends to its shareholders to accept the new offer.

Anthiarose Limited, a subsidiary of PPF, is not going to submit a counter-bid. Originally, Anthiarose offered Kc950 per Zentiva share but withdrew the bid at the end of July.

Zentiva, the largest Czech pharmaceutical company, focuses on the production of generic medicines, a cheaper variant of original medicines whose patent protection has expired.

Zentiva employs over 6,000 people and has production plants in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Turkey. Its shares are traded on the London and Prague Stock Exchanges.

Source: Zentiva, Prague Daily Monitor