Canada group makes tender offer for Novartis stock

ZURICH (Reuters) - A private Canadian investment company has made an unsolicited "mini-tender" offer for shares in Novartis AG (NOVN.VX: Quote), the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday.

TRC Capital Corporation is offering to buy up to two million American Depositary Shares (ADSs), or 0.08 percent of the Novartis's outstanding share capital, the Basel-based company said in a statement.

"Novartis cautions its stockholders that TRC Capital's offer price of $51.50 per ADS represented a 4.4 percent discount to the closing price of Novartis ADSs on June 2, 2008, the day before the offer commenced," Novartis said.

"Novartis recommends against tendering shares in this offer."

(Reporting by Sam Cage)