Nordic Capital-led consortium raises takeover price for Bavarian Nordic to $39 per share

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(Reuters) -Bavarian Nordic said on Wednesday a consortium led by Nordic Capital and Permira had raised its offer price for the vaccine maker to 250 Danish crowns ($39) per share after its initial bid was not accepted by a sufficient number of investors.

Innosera, a newly formed entity controlled by the consortium, had offered to buy Bavarian Nordic in July for 233 crowns per share, or around $3 billion in total, with the biotech’s board unanimously recommending the offer to its shareholders in August.

The board reiterated its recommendation of the offer in a statement on Thursday.

Bavarian Nordic’s stock, which had closed at 230.5 crowns the night before, opened about 4.5% higher.

However, shareholders representing only about 25.7% of Bavarian Nordic’s share capital have so far accepted the offer, according to Wednesday’s statement. This is below the revised 75% threshold the consortium had.

Danish pension fund ATP’s position on the offer remains unchanged, its Deputy Director of Danish Equities Claus Moller Berner told Reuters. The fund, which holds an around 10% stake in the vaccine maker based on LSEG data, had publicly rejected the previous offer.

Innosera has now informed Bavarian Nordic that the revised offer, which will expire on November 5, is its “best and final” and will not be increased further, the company said.

Bavarian Nordic, which makes mpox and other vaccines, is a key supplier to governments globally, including public health preparedness programmes in the United States.

The consortium plans to delist the company from Nasdaq Copenhagen following completion of the offer, which is expected in the fourth quarter of 2025.

($1 = 6.4075 Danish crowns)

(Reporting by Harshita Meenaktshi in Bengaluru and Vera Dvorakova in Gdansk; Editing by Leroy Leo and Milla Nissi-Prussak)