Actavis offers 723 kuna in cash per share and a 12 kuna per share dividend, which for shareholders means a 735 kuna cash payment per share, or a total of USD2.3 billion.
This is USD100 million or 18 kuna per share more than the offer of the US company Barr Pharmaceuticals, which Pliva's Supervisory Board decided this week to recommend to shareholders.
In a statement, Actavis said it submitted the improved offer to Pliva and its financial advisors on Monday and that today's statement confirmed the terms of the offer.
Actavis said the financing of the offer would be completely secured, arranged by JP Morgan, HSBC and UBS, and that it would be a combination of credit and preference shares.
Today, trading in Pliva shares exceeded 1.3 billion kuna, the highest Pliva turnover in one day and the highest price achieved in trading with Pliva shares so far.
Actavis said it acquired 1,505,943 shares and 371,865 GDR's, which represents nine per cent of Pliva's capital in circulation. The company added it already controlled 0.7 per cent of Pliva shares acquired earlier this year by Quaestus Private Equity Partners.
The Icelandic company said it had signed options contracts for another 10.7 per cent or 1,894,650 shares.
It said the merger with Pliva would create the third largest world generic company and that unlike Barr, Actavis did not make its offer conditional on previous approvals by regulatory bodies of the US, Germany or any other jurisdiction.
Actavis said it would retain Pliva's name and transfer manufacturing from several countries to Croatia, reinforce Pliva's research and development potentials in Croatia, and use Pliva's entire infrastructure to manage a large and important part of the new group's business, adding the group's combine earnings this year would revolve around EUR2.3 billion.
(EUR1 = 7.25 kuna)