Chris Viehbacher, the chief executive of Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) is will move ahead with a formal offer for Genzyme (GENZ) that could value the US biotech company at close to US$19B, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The board of Sanofi earlier this month authorised Mr Viehbacher to go public, if necessary, with his interest in Genzyme, which is known for making drugs to treat very rare conditions.Attempts since the beginning of the month to engage Genzyme in friendly discussions have failed, those people said, with the Genzyme board divided on the merits of entering negotiations.

A so-called “bear hug” letter from Sanofi expressing its interest could come within days, they said, adding that a final decision on how to proceed had not yet been taken. The board of Sanofi was yesterday still discussing its options.

Mr Viehbacher was authorized to approach Genzyme about a deal valuing the US company at up to US$70/shr.

It is not clear whether Sanofi’s formal approach would be made at that level, which would value Genzyme’s equity at about US$18.7B.

The US$70/shr price tag represents about a 30% premium to where Genzyme shares were trading before news of Sanofi’s interest was first reported earlier this month. Genzyme shares on Wednesday rose 0.6% to US$67.94. Sanofi shares rose 0.61% to €45.43 in Paris.

Sanofi declined to comment. Genzyme did not respond to a request for comment.—Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. www.livetradingnews.com

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Jul 29th, 2010and filed underEquities, Europe, Latest News, Markets, USA.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site