Merger between Intercell and Vivalis planned to complete soon

French biotech firm Vivalis (Euronext: VLS) previously-announced acquisition of Intercell (ICEL.VI) in a deal valuing the Austrian vaccine maker at around 133 million euros ($174 million), and creating an enlarged entity in the European biotechnology sector under the name of Valneva, with stock market listings in Paris and Vienna (The Pharma Letter December 18, 2012) has reached the final step for closing the deal, which is described as a merger of equals, by filing of the relevant documents with the companies’ register at the Commercial Court of Lyon, the French firm says.

This step follows the approval of the proposed merger by the extraordinary general meetings of both companies, the issuance of the pre-merger certificates by the French Commercial Register on April 3, 2013, and by the Austrian Commercial Register on April 12, 2013, and the issuance of the certificate of legality of the merger on April 17, 2013. Subject to the registration decision by the Court of Lyon, the completion of the merger is expected for May 28, 2013, and will have the following impact on shares and trading:

Automatic exchange of Intercell shares