Roche Holding Ltd., a subsidiary created to facilitate a merger withSyntex Corp., is extending its offer to purchase all outstanding Syntexstock until Aug. 3.Roche Capital Corp. extended the offer to give time to comply withFederal Trade Commission regulations dealing with antitrust matters.Roche, of Basel, Switzerland, and Syntex, of Palo Alto, Calif., said onMay 2 that they entered into a definitive agreement in which Rochewould pay $24 per share for the 221 million outstanding shares ofSyntex, or $5.3 billion.The offer is contingent upon a majority of Syntex shares beingtendered. The companies said 130 million shares, or about 59 percent,had been validly tendered and not withdrawn as of Friday.Syntex had sales of $2.1 billion for the fiscal year that ended July 31,1993, Linda Thomas, the company's public affairs manager, toldBioWorld. Syntex's board of directors approved the merger andrecommended that stockholders tender their shares and vote in favor ofa merger. _ Jim Shrine

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