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Friday, April 29, 2011

PREVIEW-Actelion faces tussle for shareholder support, (ATLN)

Europe's largest biotech group Actelion Ltd (ATLN.VX) faces a tough battle at its annual general meeting to convince investors that it has the most value-creating strategy after facing heavy criticism from its largest shareholder. Elliott Advisors has accused the $7.5 billion group of squandering shareholder value through its high-risk strategy and the New York-based fund has urged Actelion to consider selling itself after a string of product setbacks. The fight will come to a head next Thursday morning when Actelion and Elliott square up in Basel in front of scores of investors and both will be fencing hard to get their candidates onto the Actelion board. "Actelion will have to stay cool. Elliott will probably be quite aggressive," said Helvea analyst Olav Zilian.

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