(, ), headquartered in ,
Thrombosis ,
Oncology ,
Diabetes ,
Central Nervous System ,
Internal Medicine and
Vaccines .
Sanofi-aventis was formed in
2004 when
Sanofi-synthélabo merged with
Aventis . In early 2004, sanofi-synthélabo made a
Hostile Takeover bid worth €47.8 bn against Aventis. Initially, Aventis rejected the bid because it offered inferior value based on the company's share value. The three-month takeover battle concluded when sanofi-synthélabo launched a friendly bid of €54.5 bn in place of the previously rejected hostile bid. Government intervention also played an active role.
French government, desiring a local merger solution, put heavy pressure on sanofi-synthélabo to raise its bid for Aventis after it became known that
Novartis , a
Swiss pharmaceutical company, was in the running.
Sanofi-synthélabo was formed in
1999 when
Sanofi merged with
Synthélabo . The merged company was based in Paris, France.
Aventis was formed in 1999 when
Rhône-Poulenc S.A. merged with Hoechst Marion Roussel, which itself was formed from the merger of
Hoechst AG with Roussel Uclaf and Marion Merrell Dow. The merged company was based in
Strasbourg , France.
- Breakdown of share ownership: 12.65% by Total , 10.13% by L'Oréal , 5.47% Treasury Shares , 1.29% Employees , the remaining 70.46% are Publicly Traded .
- Voting right distribution: 21.37% to Total, 17.12% to L'Oréal, 1.54% to employees, and 59.97% to the public.
In
2003 , sanofi-aventis's consolidated sales was €25 bn. It has operations in more than 100 countries throughout the 5 continents and has 99,700 employees worlwide.
Research And Development investment was €4 bn.
- Sales by activity breakdown: 39% from Cardiovascular/Thrombosis, 29% from Central Nervous System, 18% from Internal Medicine, 11% from Oncology, 3% from other pharmaceutical products.
- Sales by geographic area breakdown: 58% from Europe, 24% from U.S. , 18% from rest of the world.
The Aventis Prizes For Science Books , which celebrate the very best in popular science writing for adults and children, have grown to be one of the world's most prestigious non-fiction literary prizes.
The Aventis Prizes are managed by the
Royal Society , the
UK national academy of science, and the Aventis Foundation, a
German charitable trust established in 1996 as the with an
Endowment of €50 million. In
2000 the foundation was renamed the Aventis Foundation subsequent to the 1999 merger of Hoechst and Rhône-Poulenc.
