Zentiva advises shareholders to accept Sanofi-Aventis takeover bid

The French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi-Aventis has raised its offer for Czech market-leader Zentiva, it was announced on Monday. A spokesperson for Zentiva said that the Czech firm’s board had advised shareholders to accept the offer. The new offer is worth 1,150 crowns per share, 100 crowns higher than the previous tender. Zentiva’s board of directors unanimously approved the agreement and said afterwards that they were ‘glad to have reached an agreement’ with the French firm. Sanofi-Aventis’s original offer was turned down in July and, last week, the companied successfully lobbied the Czech National Bank to extend the validity of the takeover bid.