Greater Pacific Capital, a London-based private equity group set up by former Goldman Sachs bankers, has emerged as a surprise front-runner in the $5bn race for the generic drugs arm of Merck, of Germany, reports The Times. Greater Pacific, established two years ago by Ketan Patel, Joe Sealy and Francis Crispino, is bidding jointly with Torrent Pharmaceuticals, of India. Their bid is being backed by Fortess Group and Tudor Investment, sources said. Other bidders still in the frame include Teva Pharmaceuticals of Israel and Mylan Laboratories of the US. The three bidders have been told to submit final offers in two weeks, The Times said.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 at 5:45 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A. Tagged with fortress, greater pacific, merck, torrent pharmaceuticals, tudor. Edit this entry.