Ratiopharm gets at least 10 bids: sources

FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) - German generic drugmaker Ratiopharm has attracted at least 10 first-round bids, several people familiar with the procedure told Reuters on Wednesday, indicating a competitive auction was underway.

The strong initial interest comes despite intense price pressure in Germany -- where Ratiopharm makes half its sales -- and includes several bidders from the private equity industry, which struggled to do any deals of size during the depths of the financial crisis.

Bidders from the healthcare industry include Israel's Teva, Mylan of the United States, Sanofi-Aventis of France, China's Sinopharm and Actavis of Iceland, the sources said.

Buyout firms participating in the round of bids, which were non-binding, include TPG, Advent in collaboration with Goldman Sachs, Permira and KKR.

One source said EQT had also filed a bid.

Bidders will be asked to confirm their non-binding offers in December and a smaller group will make binding offers in February, some of the sources said. Ratiopharm has said it aims to conclude a deal in the first quarter of 2010.

A spokesman for Ratiopharm, put up for sale to cut its owner's debt, declined to comment.

Teva, Actavis, Goldman Sachs and all private equity companies named by the sources also declined comment. Sanofi, Sinopharm and Mylan were not immediately available for comment.

Earlier this month, Teva President and Chief Executive Shlomo Yanai declined to comment on Ratiopharm but said Teva was "scrutinising the industry constantly looking for acquisitions" that would be accretive to its earnings in the first year.

It was not clear how Actavis -- whose own sale was halted earlier this year and which owes Deutsche Bank billions of euros -- would mount any potential bid.

MERCKLE FAMILY

Several sources close to the proceedings also told Reuters on Wednesday that most bids came in between 2 billion euros ($3 billion) and 2.5 billion euros.

A spokesman for Ratiopharm's parent, Merckle family investment vehicle VEM, said last week VEM was positively surprised by the number of bids and that it was "very satisfied" with the level of the offers.

Encouraged by the interest from suitors, the sale of Ratiopharm as a whole remained a priority, he said at the time.

VEM owner Ludwig Merckle is selling Ratiopharm as part of concessions made by his late father to creditor banks. Commerzbank and Royal Bank of Scotland are managing the sale.

($1=.6674 Euro)

(Reporting by Philipp Halstrick, Frank Siebelt and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt, Simon Meads and Quentin Webb in London, and Tova Cohen in Tel Aviv; editing by Simon Jessop)