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Elf to sell 15% of Sanofi
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September 1, 1999: 8:41 a.m. ET
French oil firm to cut holding in drug firm to help finance Total bid
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LONDON (CNNfn) - French oil major Elf Aquitaine said Wednesday it plans to sell a 15 percent stake in drug maker Sanofi-Synthelabo to help finance its hostile bid for rival TotalFina.
The planned sale would cut Elf's stake in Sanofi from 35.5 percent to 20 percent and raise around 4.5 billion euros ($4.7 billion) at current market prices.
A spokesman for Elf told CNNfn.com the company had included its plans to sell the stake when it filed its take-over proposals for Total with the French stock market regulator.
The news hit Sanofi's shares, which fell 3 percent to 38.23 euros in Paris, in a slightly higher market. Elf's shares jumped 2.7 percent to 170.4 euros, while Total was 2.3 percent higher at 124.8 euros in early afternoon trade.
The announcement came the day after a French court dismissed appeals from both oil firms to suspend the respective bids while it decides whether both bids should be allowed to proceed.
A court hearing on the validity of the bids is set for Oct. 7, with a decision unlikely before the end of that month. This means the bid battle still has at least two months to run.
Elf's plans to sell its stake in Sanofi coincided with the release of the drug maker's first-half earnings. In the six months to June 30, net earnings jumped 18 percent to 283 million euros. Revenue rose 3 percent to 2.69 billion euros. 
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