CONGLOMERATE Bidvest has offered about R6-billion for the shares it does not already own in Adcock Ingram in a new attempt to take over the drugmaker which has a big presence in the local pharmaceutical market.

Bidvest CEO Brian Joffe, one of South Africa's major dealmakers, has been trying to take control of Adcock since 2013, seeing an opportunity to turn around an under-performing company and add painkillers and cough syrups to his stable of products. Last year, Joffe sank R74.50 per share rival takeover offer for Adcock from Chile's CFR Pharmaceuticals by building a blocking stake that gave his company its current holding of 34.5%.

In March 2013, he had offered a 10% premium for a 60% stake in Adcock, a bid spurned by Adcock's board at the time as opportunistic.

Under the latest proposal, Bidvest would pay R52 per share, which represents a 3.6% premium to Adcock's closing price on Friday. The offer would value the company at around R9.1-billion. This would be 9% below the company's enterprise value of about R10-billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The deal would give Bidvest a substantial presence in the generic market, which is set to take off as the government prepares a national health insurance plan which relies on the use of cut-price versions of branded drugs.

Adcock is trailing rivals as it struggles with slowing sales, over-reliance on a heavily regulated home market and factories that are running below capacity.

Bidvest's activities span shipping to catering.