Sanofi workers in France to strike over sale of consumer health unit, union official says
Adds company statement in paragraphs 8-9, analyst note in paragraph 10
PARIS, Oct 16 (Reuters) -French unions have called on workers at Sanofi SASY.PA to strike from Thursday to protest a planned sale of the pharmaceutical group's consumer health arm, adding to complications around a deal estimated at about $16 billion.
"The strike will start at 5 o'clock (CET), when people start their shifts, and cover the whole of France," CGT union representative Fabien Mallet told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that the call was made jointly by the CGT and CFDT unions, the two largest at Sanofi.
Sanofi said last week it had entered into talks to sell a controlling 50% stake in its consumer health business Opella to U.S. private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice, a year after flagging that it was looking at options for the business.
But the deal has become a political issue, after politicians raised concerns about potential job losses at the business, known for producing the Doliprane painkiller popular among French households.
Other critics of the deal have said the company could cede control of strategic assets, despite pledges made by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic to restore self-sufficiency in healthcare.
The French government will need guarantees that production of Doliprane will stay in France to allow the sale of the Sanofi's consumer health branch to go ahead, economy minister Antoine Armand said on Monday.
He later said that the government could even take a stake in the unit. "I will tell you quite clearly, nothing is off the table, nothing is excluded," he said.
"None of the options under consideration involve reducing Opella's industrial footprint in France," Sanofi said in a statement, adding that the future of both its sites and employees in France would be key to its growth and therefore guaranteed.
"Sanofi's decision to retain 50% of the capital is a guarantee that these activities will be anchored in France in the long term," the statement added.
The emergence of regulatory concerns over the sale have hit Sanofi shares this week, and the company will be under pressure to communicate a clear plan when it reports third quarter earnings next week, Barclays said in a note on Wednesday.
Reporting by Tassilo Hummel and Dominique Patton. Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
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