After offering to work with Aspen Pharmacare Holding of South Africa to improve the offer for Sigma shareholders, Sigma Pharmaceuticals rejected Aspen’s offer due to the offer being “highly conditional”.

Aspen asked for an extended period of exclusivity until the second of August, but, according to Mark Hooper, Sigma’s boss, Aspen’s exclusive offer of 55 cents a share would not be extended.

As an alternative, Sigma is now shifting to the divestment of its generic business, marketing a book value of $600 million. This value is even more than the company’s market value, which is estimated at worth $536.3 million, with common stock price of 45 cents a share. This price hardly changed after announcing the rejection of Aspen’s extension.

The Australian generic market is expected to grow by five times in the coming five years, which increased the analysts surprise with Sigma’s decision to sell out all of its generic business.

Last year, the earnings of the generic business represented $30 million of the total earnings of the company of $ 220 million.

Sigma Pharmaceuticals occupy 25% of the market share of stock, which makes Sigma the second biggest contributor in the Australian Medical market.