Reuters: Deals: Roche hikes cash bid for Illumina by 15 percent

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Roche hikes cash bid for Illumina by 15 percent Mar 29th 2012, 06:00 ZURICH | Thu Mar 29, 2012 2:00am EDT ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX) has hiked its cash bid offer for U.S. gene sequencing company Illumina (ILMN.O) by 15 percent to over $6 billion in a bid to win over shareholders ahead of Illumina's annual general meeting next month. Roche is now offering $51.00 per share, up from an initial bid of $44.50 per share, one it had considered "full and fair" but that was dismissed by the target company as too low. "Based on our discussions with Illumina shareholders we have seen interest to accelerate the takeover process. As a result, we are increasing our offer price to $51.00 per share," Roche said in a statement on Thursday. Illumina shares, which have broadly been trading around the $50 mark since the middle of February, closed at $49.88 on Wednesday night. Roche, the world's largest maker of cancer drugs, said it still wanted to enter discussions with Illumina, but that it would continue to pursue the deal unilaterally if management at the San-Diego based group refused to talk. Analysts had expected Roche to raise its bid for Illumina, but the decision to do so now comes earlier than many had anticipated. Roche, which has already extended its initial offer twice for Illumina, has a history of success with hostile takeouts, as highlighted by the earlier buys of U.S. diagnostic test-maker Ventana and U.S. biotech group Genentech. Roche has been forging ahead in developing targeted therapies and Illumina's technology would help it to progress further in this field as gene sequencing can help better identify which patients benefit from a given drug. Greenhill & Co., LLC and Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. are acting as financial advisors to Roche. (Reporting by Martin de Sa'Pinto; Editing by Mike Nesbit) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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