(Reuters) - Generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd  (>> Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited) said it could "promptly" divest some operations to obtain regulatory clearance for its proposed $40 billion takeover of smaller rival Mylan NV (>> Mylan NV).

Mylan, which has said a merger with Teva would be bad fit, plans to make a new offer for Perrigo Co Plc (>> Perrigo Company PLC) in the near term, CNBC reported on Wednesday. (http://cnb.cx/1EbtArn)

Mylan earlier this month made a $29 billion offer for Perrigo, in a move that some analysts suggested was a tactic to help fend off Teva. But, Perrigo, a maker of over-the-counter medicines, rejected the offer on Tuesday.

A Mylan spokesman declined to comment on the CNBC report.

Teva plans to work with antitrust authorities and expects that the proposed transaction with Mylan can be completed by the end of 2015, it said on Wednesday, a day after going public with its bid for Mylan.

Jerusalem, Israel-based Teva did not say which operations it could be ready to divest.

Mylan has yet to publicly respond to Teva's offer, but last week Mylan Executive Chairman Robert Coury responded to reports of a potential deal by saying that such a combination would attract antitrust scrutiny and was "without sound industrial logic or cultural fit".

However, some of Mylan's top investors, including Paulson and Co, are encouraging its board to consider Teva's proposal, Reuters has reported.

Abbott Laboratories (>> Abbott Laboratories) said on Wednesday it intends to hold on to its 14.25 percent stake in Mylan for at least the short term.

A Teva-Mylan deal would be the second-largest healthcare transaction in the last 12 months after Botox maker Allergan was bought for $66 billion by Actavis Plc (>> Actavis PLC), also a generic drugmaker.

Generic drugmakers are looking to get bigger and gain access to product lines with higher profit margins.

(Reporting by Natalie Grover and Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)