Shares in Germany’s biggest drugmaker were up as much as 4.1 percent in trading today on speculation Novartis may make a bid, Bloomberg News reports. In fact, stock in Bayer, which last year bought German rival Schering AG for about $22.9 billion, has risen more than 30 percent this year as the acquisition boosts earnings at its health-care unit.

“A rumor Novartis may bid 70 euros ($94.36) a share for Bayer is doing the rounds,” Oliver Schmidt, a trader at Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz in Germany, tells the wire. Bayer spokesman Christian Hartel declined to comment. Novartis spokesman John Gilardi says the drugmaker “never comments on market speculation.”

Analysts says a takeover by Novartis may not be imminent, because Bayer makes plastics and farm chemicals in addition to pharmaceuticals. “Novartis is always good for a rumor,” Karl-Heinz Scheunemann, an analyst at Frankfurt’s Bankhaus Metzler Seel, tells Bloomberg. “It doesn’t appear to be any more than that. While Novartis could certainly finance a takeover, it would be difficult to digest a conglomerate. They’d have to have buyers lined up for the plastics and crop treatments units.”