The pharmaceutical group Novartis wants to delist Morphosys from the stock exchange following the takeover of the biotech company.

Novartis now holds around 91 percent of Morphosys, the biotech company announced on Thursday. The remaining shareholders are now to be compulsorily compensated via a squeeze-out. Novartis is offering them 68.00 euros per share, which corresponds to the previous takeover bid. Morphosys is expected to be delisted from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq technology exchange in the third quarter. Morphosys shares were up 0.8 percent in the MDax this morning at 67.80 euros.

Novartis announced the acquisition of the company from Planegg near Munich for 2.7 billion euros in February and completed the purchase in May. With the acquisition, the pharmaceutical giant has secured access to Morphosys' greatest hope, the drug pelabresib for the treatment of myelofibrosis, a rare malignant disease of the bone marrow.

(Report by Patricia Weiß, edited by Myria Mildenberger. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)