Novartis AG on Thursday offered $4.5 billion for the shares of U.S. drugmaker Chiron Corp. it does not already own, in a bid to take the Swiss group firmly into the vaccines business.
Valuing the company at about $7.8 billion, or 4.6 times total 2004 sales, the Novartis offer for the remaining 42.2 percent of Chiron translates into a premium of about 10 percent to Wednesday’s closing share price.
