BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Asset value arbitrage

BB Biotech fund rejects push by Vontobel Group to go private

July 16, 2012 7:00 AM UTC

The Vontobel Group is looking to take Swiss biotech fund BB Biotech AG private. That would allow both the Swiss bank and shareholders of BB Biotech to cash in on a longstanding discrepancy between the net asset value of the fund and its market cap.

Vontobel said its offer is a 31.7% premium to BB Biotech's CHF81.95 share price last Thursday, the day before the offer was disclosed. That would put the offer price at CHF107.90 per share, or CHF1.4 billion ($1.4 billion) based on 13 million shares outstanding...