Private equity group confirms its offer – lower than the tobacco firm’s – is final, leaving shareholders with a dilemma
Vectura shareholders are to be asked whether they wish to sell the British asthma inhaler maker to a private equity firm for £958m, or collect £44m more by handing it to big tobacco company Philip Morris International.
The Carlyle Group and PMI’s intense bidding war for Vectura, which was founded by academics at Bath University almost 20 years ago, had been due to be decided by an unusual Takeover Panel-run auction beginning on Wednesday.