Teva Pharmaceutical offers to buy Mylan for $31bn

Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Tuesday launched an unsolicited bid to buy Mylan for $31 billion in a transaction that would create a behemoth in generic drugs.

Teva's cash-and-stock bid would quash an unsolicited bid by Mylan earlier this month to acquire Perrigo for $28.9 billion. Teva said its bid amounted to superior value for Mylan shareholders compared with Mylan's approach to Perrigo.

Under the offer, Mylan shareholders would receive a premium of 37.7 percent compared with the Mylan stock price of $59.57 prior to its April 8 bid for Perrigo, Teva said.

With Mylan debt added in, the total value of the takeover would be $40 billion.

"Our proposal is compelling for both Teva and Mylan stockholders and other stakeholders," said Erez Vigodman, chief executive of Teva.

The deal would provide Mylan stockholders with "the opportunity to participate in the significant upside potential of the combined company –- one that would transform the global generics space and leverage it to hold a unique leadership position in the pharmaceutical industry," Vigodman said.

Teva said it would invest in the company's combined $10 billion specialty pharmaceutical business and reap some $2 billion in annual costs and taxes from combining operations. Combined revenues would be more than $30 billion.