What if Doliprane remained in the French fold? The French investment fund PAI Partners, the competitor to the American fund CD&R, has improved its offer “to the tune of an additional 200 million euros” for the takeover of the Sanofi subsidiary, Opella, which markets Doliprane, said Thursday a source from the fund’s entourage. An announcement that Sanofi did not expect, since at the start of the evening, the company said it was “surprised” that the PAI fund had made an “improved offer”, outside the “deadlines”.
“We submitted an improved offer of an additional 200 million euros”, which makes PAI “the best bidder financially” and “from a social point of view as well” in this matter, according to this source who did not did not specify either the amount of the competing offer or his own.
Sanofi announced last week that it was negotiating with the American investment fund CD&Air in order to potentially sell it 50% of its consumer health entity Opella, its subsidiary which markets around a hundred brands of non-prescription products around the world.
“We can participate in the solution,” believes this source close to the tricolor background, while the issue arouses strong emotion in public opinion and strong concerns in the political class and among Opella employees due to the attachment of the Doliprane brand in French society.
Strike at Sanofi
Before proceeding with this bidding war, an offer from the French fund PAI Partners, supported by the funds of Abu Dhabi Avia, Singaporean GIC, and the Canadian BCI, was submitted on Thursday “at a price equivalent” to that of CD&R, according to this source.
Sanofi, however, set its sights on CD&R by taking into account strategic criteria, notably the fact that the United States is Opella’s leading market with nearly 25% of its turnover. Questioned early Thursday afternoon, Sanofi declined to comment.
For their part, the CFDT and CGT unions of Sanofi called on Wednesday for a renewable strike starting this Thursday. The latter fear a “social breakdown” in the 1,700 jobs that Opella has on French soil, including 500 on its site in Compiègne (Oise) and 250 in its factory in Lisieux (Calvados), entirely dedicated to Doliprane.
The president of Sanofi France, Audrey Duval, tried on Thursday to reassure her workforce, guaranteeing on RTL the “sustainability” of jobs, production sites and Doliprane. The government, for its part, asked for guarantees from stakeholders in terms of maintaining employment, the industrial footprint, the location of headquarters and research and development.
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