BERLIN (Reuters) – Novartis said on Thursday that its tender offer for MorphoSys has begun, with an offer price of 68 euros ($73.08) per share in cash, corresponding to a premium of 142% on the volume-weighted average price during the last three months.
Shares in MorphoSys closed at 67.1 euros per share on April 10.
The acceptance period will begin on Thursday and end at midnight on May 13, added Novartis.
Reuters reported in February that the drug maker was in advanced talks to acquire MorphoSys AG, a developer of cancer treatments that has a market value of 1.6 billion euros ($1.7 billion).
Headquartered in Planegg, Germany, MorphoSys develops drugs to fight deadly forms of cancers such as myelofibrosis, which is a rare type of bone marrow cancer, and certain types of knotty lymphomas.
Novartis said that Deutsche Bank is acting as share tender agent and The Bank of New York Mellon will serve as American Depository Shares (ADS) tender agent for the offer.
($1 = 0.9305 euros)
(Writing by Miranda Murray, Editing by Rachel More and Andrey Sychev)
