Shanghai Pharma says may submit rival bid for Germany's Stada

By Adam Jourdan

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Shanghai Pharmaceutical Holding Co Ltd said it may bid for Stada Arzneimittel AG - a move that would pit it against buyout firms Bain and Cinven which have made a joint offer of nearly $6 billion for the German generics drugmaker.

The Chinese drugmaker said in a filing that it had recently discussed the matter with 'a couple of financial investors' but added that it had not made a concrete offer and there were still many uncertainties.

Bloomberg reported this week that Shanghai Pharma, along with investor Advent International, was discussing a bid of about 70 euros a share, which would top Bain and Cinven's offer in April of 65.28 euros per share and a dividend of 0.72 euros per Stada share.

But Shanghai Pharma, which has a market value of around 63 billion yuan ($9.2 billion), said the reported offer price was "inconsistent with reality".

Stada said on Tuesday it had not been notified of any rival offer.

Bain and Cinven's 5.3 billion euro offer had beat a rival consortium of Advent and Permira, and had carried a premium of 49 percent over Stada's Dec. 9 share price, before the first report of a takeover approach.

Shanghai Pharma said in March it was in early-stage contact with several U.S. and European drug firms.

Founded in 1895 in Dresden as a pharmacists' cooperative, Stada's generic drug business has come under price pressure as medical insurers in Germany, its largest market, are seeking bulk procurement deals at low prices.

($1 = 0.8998 euros)

($1 = 6.8871 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edwina Gibbs)