By Aaron Gray-Block
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch fund Robeco said a potential bid for Crucell from Johnson & Johnson was an "interesting starting offer" as it joined a chorus of shareholders arguing the biotech firm was undervalued.
Shares in Crucell jumped after Robeco's comments to Reuters, rising for the first time above the 24.75 euros that J&J said last week it might offer for the Dutch firm and closed 1.6 percent higher at 24.84 euros.
"It is an interesting starting offer," said Henk Grootveld, a co-portfolio manager at Robeco Hollands Bezit, which holds a 1.5 percent stake in Crucell. "We have been a major shareholder (of Crucell) ... and we found it extremely undervalued."
U.S.-based healthcare company Johnson & Johnson said last week it was in talks with Crucell to pay 1.75 billion euros ($2.3 billion) for the company as it seeks to catapult itself into the global vaccine market.
But shareholder Delta Lloyd Asset Management -- which holds about a 4 percent stake in Crucell, making it the third-biggest investor -- has also said Crucell was undervalued.
"It is not a done deal; we still have to make up our minds about whether to tender our shares," said Jack Jonk, head of equity at Delta Lloyd Asset Management.
Delta Lloyd Asset Management has been in contact with other shareholders, including the Van Herk Group, which has criticized the potential offer price as "meager and too early" and is the second-largest shareholder in Crucell behind J&J.
Van Herk, Delta Lloyd and Robeco jointly control at least 15.5 percent of Crucell shares, and a J&J spokeswoman said the company took note of their comments, but would not make any further statement. Crucell declined to comment.
But ABN AMRO analyst Rene Verhoef said calling the potential offer price too low was "all part of the game" and it was hard to assess whether J&J would eventually increase it.
"The company has a very modest pipeline, and the largest part of the value is coming from products already on the market ... It is a very generous offer on the table," Verhoef said.
He added J&J's 18 percent stake in Crucell made it extremely difficult for another company to outbid it.
INCREASED STAKE
Delta Lloyd's Jonk said the premium potentially on offer from J&J would "generate a nice profit," but it would enter talks with Crucell and J&J to discuss whether it was enough.
"We take our own view. It is good to know what others think, but we choose our own path," Jonk said.
Jonk added that he saw strategic sense in the deal because Crucell was a natural fit for J&J, but also questioned whether Crucell had been granted sufficient time to create value.
According to a September 22 filing with the Dutch market regulator AFM published on Friday, Van Herk has increased its stake to 10.02 from 9.6 percent in a filing of December 2009.
Van Herk managing director Gertjan van der Baan told Reuters the group had increased its stake actively after J&J announced the offer and that Van Herk had exercised some options.
"We have not seen a reason yet to change our mind about the offer," he said.
Crucell has said the deal could close by the end of the year, and that its supervisory and management boards would recommend shareholders tender their shares to the offer.
(Additional reporting by Harro ten Wolde and Gilbert Kreijger; Editing by Mike Nesbit and Will Waterman)
