Adcock Ingram and CFR Pharma call off merger

South Africa’s Adcock Ingram (AIP: SP) and Chile’s largest drugmaker  CFR Pharmaceuticals have issued a joint statement terminating the increased $1.3 billion proposed acquisition of Adcock by the Chilean firm (The Pharma Letter December 16, 2013).

They said that, as a result of an announcement on the Stock Exchange News Service by the Bidvest Group, the South African firm that was proposed as a preferred buyer of Adcock, that a Bidvest consortium has acquired around 34.5% of the company, they had come to the conclusion there is no prospect that the special resolutions to approve the scheme of arrangement proposed between the company and the holders of Adcock Ingram ordinary shares in relation to the offer from CFR will be approved by the necessary 75% majority.

In the circumstances, Adcock Ingram shareholders are advised the company does not intend to reconvene the Combined General Meeting and the Ordinary General Meeting to consider the resolutions to approve the scheme, each of which was adjourned in December 2013.