Schering AG gets added to the growing list of wannabe munchers:
(From www.ft.com site, free registration required - spotted by George on the BVF thread).
Schering, the German pharmaceuticals group, yesterday said it planned to develop a "fourth leg" in its business portfolio through acquisitions, most probably in the biotechnology sector.
The Berlin-based company said its ability to fund big acquisitions would be significantly bolstered by its planned disposal of its 24 per cent stake in Aventis Crop Science, the agrichemicals business to be created by the merger of Hoechst of Germany and Rhône-Poulenc, the French group.
Klaus Pohle, Schering chief financial officer, said the company hoped to gain DM10bn (E5.11bn, $5.58bn) from the sale of the stake. "That will take us into a completely different league," he said. He also said the company, which last November became the first big German company to carry out a share buy-back, would seek shareholder approval for an option for a capital increase to raise around E2bn as a further means of funding possible acquisitions.
Giuseppe Vita, chairman, said this apparently contradictory approach was aimed at creating as much flexibility as possible. He said Schering was already looking at acquisition possibilities in the bio-technology sector as a means of expanding its existing activities in female healthcare, therapeutics and diagnostics.
Hey - a few billion there and a few billion here and there ain't gonna be no biotech sector left. <G>
Peter
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