Mr Jean-Francois Dehecq, chief executive of Sanofi-Synthelabo, stamped his authority quickly on the world's third largest drugs group yesterday after securing victory in the €50.8 billion bid battle for Aventis.

"He who pays the premium, controls the company," he said.

Sanofi, based in Paris, won the three-month campaign for its Franco-German rival after sweetening its offer by 14 per cent to create a company with a market capitalisation of about €90 billion.

Sanofi-Aventis, as the new company will be known, will have Mr Dehecq as chairman and chief executive.

The board will include him and eight members each from Sanofi and Aventis.

Some analysts said this made it more of a merger than a takeover but Mr Dehecq told the Financial Times: "There is equality, plus me as the chairman of Sanofi."

Mr Dehecq said he would choose the management of Sanofi-Aventis. He wasted little time in previous acquisitions in asserting his dominance over other executives, forcing out the former head of Synthelabo in under two years.

His comments came amid mounting criticism of the French government's intervention in the takeover battle.

Mr Daniel Vasella, chairman of Novartis, which entered talks with Aventis before being deterred by the French government, said: "I think it is, in the short term, a big win for [French finance minister Mr Nicholas] Sarkozy but in the longer term it is a setback for the country in terms of foreign investment."

The French government is preparing to launch a wave of privatisations in coming months and Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin, French prime minister, moved to allay investors' concerns yesterday.

"This does not mean France will be nationalistic, individualistic and egotistical, but that it will be open to projects with our European and other partners," he said.

The planned acquisition of Aventis was approved by the European Commission yesterday, as expected.

The Commission said the French government's statements opposing a Novartis bid were not sufficient grounds for legal action against France.

Mr Dehecq rejected criticism by some analysts that he had overpaid, underlining that the 14 per cent rise in the offer was due to an increase in the cash portion, meaning that Sanofi shareholders would not be diluted.

He added that it represented the last opportunity for Sanofi to expand in continental Europe: "I had a very strong feeling that if we didn't do this deal now then one of our international competitors would have bought either Aventis or Sanofi."

Under the deal, Sanofi's shareholders will hold 51 per cent of the merged group.

The fate of nearly a third of the new company's stock is unclear as an agreement between Sanofi's two largest shareholders, L'Oreal and Total, expires in December, creating a potential stock overhang.

Uncertainty also surrounds the intentions of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, Aventis's biggest shareholder, after it abstained from the vote to approve Sanofi's offer. - (Financial Times Service)