Aventis moves to foil hostile bid

THE war for control of Aventis is escalating as the Franco-German pharmaceuticals group announced plans to issue equity warrants to fight off the e48bn (£31.6bn) hostile bid from Sanofi-Synthelabo, and formally invited Swiss giant Novartis to enter merger talks.

Aventis's non-executive co-chairmen, Jurgen Dormann and Jean-Rene Fourtou said last Friday the supervisory board has cleared the way for merger talks with Novartis, seen as a white knight to Sanofi, which launched its bid in January.

Novartis has acknowledged the approach but wants Aventis to ensure the French government will not block a cross-border merger.

A spokesman could not confirm French Press reports that its chief executive, Igor Landau, was due to meet the new finance and health ministers, Nicolas Sarkozy and Philippe Douste-Blazy, this week to persuade the government to remain neutral.

But Douste-Blazy has said in an interview the government preferred the creation of a national champion, which would mean favouring Sanofi: 'When we have the chance to create one of the world's leading pharmaceuticals companies in our own country, let's take it.'