Bergen Brunswig Bids for Alabama Firm

In a bid to expand to the South, Bergen Brunswig Corp. offered Tuesday to buy an Alabama pharmaceuticals wholesaler for $365 million.

Bergen Brunswig, a drug distributor that has long courted Durr-Fillauer Medical of Montgomery, made the offer after learning that the Alabama company was entertaining a bid from an Ohio firm.

“Having your company as part of ours would significantly enhance our presence in the Southeast markets and would represent a very desirable expansion for us,” Bergen Brunswig Chairman Robert E. Martini said in a letter to Durr-Fillauer’s board.

Under its proposal, Bergen Brunswig would buy all 11.9 million shares of Durr-Fillauer’s common stock for $26 each. It would also assume some Durr-Fillauer debts and other costs, which Bergen Brunswig officials said made the offer worth $365 million.

Durr-Fillauer shares closed unchanged at $22.25 on NASDAQ, while Bergen Brunswig stock closed at $20.25, down 12.5 cents, on the American Stock Exchange. The offer came after the stock market closed Tuesday.

Durr-Fillauer announced June 2 that it had tentatively agreed to sell its drug distribution business to Cardinal Distribution of Dublin, Ohio, and to spin off its medical supplies business to Durr stockholders.

Bergen Brunswig, one of the nation’s largest drug distributors, had revenue of $4.8 billion last year. Durr-Fillauer, the Southeast’s largest drug distributor, reported revenue of $950.5 million last year.