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...started 1991; still majority-state controlled through pension funds) - Kotka (suit maker, est. 1954, upgraded and export-oriented since 1995) - Kraš (chocolates, privatised) - Pliva...
...GSK, which already works with The Medicines for Malaria Venture on other drugs, will begin a research programme on treatments using macrolide antibiotics, expanding the uses of drugs developed by the Pliva...
...In July 2006, Barr Pharmaceuticals paid a multiple of 11.4 for the Croatian pharmaceuticals company Pliva....
...Barr agreed to retain existing management, while Actavis had fallen out with the Pliva chief executive....
...The acquisition also allows the US group to shift its higher cost production into Pliva’s low-cost production facilities....
...The acquisitive Icelandic group last week saw its HKr795 a share offer for Pliva trumped by a HKr820 bid from Barr, the US pharmaceutical group, valuing Pliva at $2.5bn....
...Actavis has completed more than 20 acquisitions including in Europe, the US and India in recent months, but lost out to Barr Pharmaceuticals of the US late last year in a bid for Pliva of Croatia....
...An adviser for Actavis, which has said it will remove Pliva’s chief executive while increasing total employment in Croatia, added on Friday night that Pliva’s supervisory board’s latest statement confirmed...
...Actavis already controls 20.8 per cent of Pliva....
...Actavis, the acquisitive Icelandic generic drugs company that lost out in the $2.5bn battle for control of Pliva of Croatia, is studying up to 20 other takeover bids that it may launch in the next few months...
...Pliva, however, clearly finds the US company a more desirable owner, given Barr’s focus on its domestic market: it is buying Pliva for its European operations, not to cut them....
...“Barr’s proposal maximizes value for all Pliva shareholders,” said Zeljko Covic, chief executive of Pliva....
...Pliva put itself up for sale this year after an unsolicited approach from Actavis....
...The competing groups also offered conflicting views as to whether the Croatian government was able to sell its 18 per cent stake in Pliva....
...Barr has an existing relationship with Pliva....
...It marks the latest chapter in the consolidation of the generic drugs sector, which has witnessed Teva’s $7.4bn takeover of Ivax, and Barr Pharmaceuticals’ purchase of Croatia’s Pliva for $2.5bn....
...It is also trying to win round Pliva, the Croa-tian generics manufacturer, which early this week re-buffed its unsolicited €1.6bn approach, saying it under- valued the company....
...The most recent round of restructuring began in mid-September when Barr of the US bid $2.5bn for Pliva, the Croatian generics manufacturer....
...But it lost out in October to Barr of the US in a bidding war for Pliva of Croatia. “We are looking at nearly 20 deals currently,” says Robert Wessman, Actavis’ chief executive....
...Mr Buhl thinks potential investors could include the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Italian banks Intesa and Unicredito, Hungary’s OTP Bank, Croatian pharmaceutical firm Pliva, Hungarian...
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