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Pfizer makes new £55 per share offer for AstraZeneca Pfizer in new offer for AstraZeneca takeover
(35 minutes later)
Drugs giant Pfizer has made an improved offer of £55 per share for AstraZeneca. US drugs giant Pfizer has made an improved offer for the UK's AstraZeneca as it bids to tie up the largest takeover in British business history.
If the offer - a mixture of shares and cash which values AstraZeneca at about £69bn - is accepted by its board, it will be the largest takeover of a firm in British corporate history. The new offer of £55 per share would value AstraZeneca at about £69bn.
The offer constitutes a 15% increase from Pfizer's proposal on 2 May.
Pfizer plans to create the world's largest drug company, with its headquarters in New York, but based in the UK for tax purposes.Pfizer plans to create the world's largest drug company, with its headquarters in New York, but based in the UK for tax purposes.
The new offer is final and cannot be increased, it said. That plan has proved controversial with unions and politicians, with 6,700 UK jobs at stake.
Not hostile In a grilling from MPs last week, AstraZeneca's French boss Pascal Soriot argued a takeover would harm its development of life-saving cancer drugs.
The US firm has argued that it plans to retain at least 20% of the combined companies' research and development workforce in the UK for at least five years and base its European HQ in Britain.
Veto powers
Opposition leader Ed Miliband claimed the assurance from Pfizer on jobs was "worthless".
The government has powers to veto certain deals, such as those involving defence and media companies, and apply a "public interest test". But this is rare, and its scope to intervene is also limited by the European Commission.
The backlash has even extended to the US, where Senators Carl Levin and Roy Wyden are looking to close the tax loophole that Pfizer plans to use.
In a strategy known as "tax inversion" Pfizer could pay the UK corporate tax rate of 20%, rather than the 35% rate applied in the US, if it bought AstraZeneca.
Pfizer chief executive Ian Read said in the new offer statement: "We stand by our unprecedented commitments to the UK government."
He also said the two companies had a "conversation" earlier that day, but that AstraZeneca was not, in his view, "currently prepared to recommend a deal at a reasonable price".
The US company increased the cash element of its bid and also promised not to mount a hostile takeover - that is, a direct approach to shareholders of AstraZeneca without the involvement of its board.The US company increased the cash element of its bid and also promised not to mount a hostile takeover - that is, a direct approach to shareholders of AstraZeneca without the involvement of its board.
Shareholders are being offered £24.76 in cash and 1.747 shares in the new firm, worth a combined £55, per share they hold. The offer constitutes a 15% increase from Pfizer's proposal on 2 May and is final and cannot be increased, it said.
Both unions and politicians had voiced their concerns the company could cut UK jobs to save money. Shareholders are being offered £24.76 in cash and 1.747 shares in the new firm - worth a combined £55 - for each share currently they hold.
But Pfizer chief executive Ian Read said in the statement: "We stand by our unprecedented commitments to the UK government."