(Yicai Global) Nov. 23 -- Shanghai RAAS Blood Products is looking to spend as much as USD5.8 billion to acquire two overseas counterparts after shelving plans to merge with an affiliate company.

The listed firm plans to issue USD5 billion worth of new shares to Spanish blood products maker Grifols in exchange for its American arm Grifols Diagnostics Solutions, and spend another EUR589 million (USD672 million) to merge with Germany's Biotest, RAAS said in a statement yesterday. The announcement did not disclose how it would fund the second transaction.

RAAS will put on hold its plans to absorb Britain-based Bio Products Laboratory, which RAAS's parent Creat Group bought for GBP820 million (USD1 billion) in 2016, to focus on the deal. Creat Group said after acquiring the firm that it would merge its entire or related businesses into RAAS.

The prospective buyer will suspend trading of its shares for 10 days from today as the transaction is a cross-border deal.

The two targets come from world-renowned blood product companies. GDS operates under one of the sector's top three players worldwide -- which holds the number one spot in market share for several products after acquiring Talecris Biotherapeutics in 2011 and Novartis' diagnostics business unit in 2014. Grifols collected more than 8,000 tons of plasma in 2015, more than all Chinese firms combined.

Biotest owns 19 plasma collection stations in Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and has a blood products factory at its Dreieich head office in Hessen, Germany. It has an existing capacity of 1,300 tons and plans to add another 1,400 tons over the next couple of years to fuel its sales and distribution networks that span 70 countries.

Editor: James Boynton