Aventis seeks saviour from Sanofi approach

Aventis, France's biggest pharmaceuticals company, made a plea for a white knight bidder yesterday as it rejected a €48bn (£33bn) hostile bid from its smaller compatriot, Sanofi-Synthelabo.

Igor Landau, the Aventis chairman, said the cash-and-shares offer undervalued the company and that there were "other scenarios with a stronger industrial and social rationale".

The company's advisers have accelerated the search for a cross-border merger as an alternative to creating a "national champion" for France that would be the world's third-largest pharmaceuticals company with combined sales of €25bn a year and more than 100,000 employees.

The audacious takeover offer was launched by Sanofi yesterday morning and the group's chairman and chief executive, Jean-Francois Dehecq, said he hoped to persuade Aventis to accept the bid, but Aventis insiders said he would get short shrift. "The management are recommending to the supervisory board that the offer is rejected," said one. "There's not a lot to talk about."

Analysts had previously tipped both GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca as potential white knights, but investors think the two British companies will opt to concentrate on organic growth. The French Government has signalled its preference for a national deal.

M. Landau said: "The premium of less than 4 per cent over the Aventis share price last week was insufficient."

The deal would also mean his shareholders would have to share the risk that Sanofi's main product, Plavix - a stroke prevention drug which accounts for 17 per cent of group sales - might face copycat competition if it loses a patent case later this year.