Despite having an initial approach rebuffed, specialty pharma group Shire (SHP) has come forward with a $30bn (£19.2bn) hostile takeover bid for biopharmaceuticals group Baxalta. Baxalta only started life as an independent company recently, its former owner - US drugs giant Baxter (US:BAX) - spun it off in early July. So far, Illinois-based Baxalta has resisted Shire's advances, to the point where Shire chief executive Flemming Ornskov said he was left with no option but to go straight to shareholders with an offer.
A takeover of Baxalta would double Shire’s revenues and more than triple its employee headcount. The aim, it says, is to create a company focused on rare disease drugs with $20bn in product sales by 2020. The move comes less than a year after Shire itself was on the cusp of being taken over in a tax-driven deal by US group AbbVie (US:ABBV) for $55bn.
Under current offer terms, Shire shareholders would own 63 per cent of the enlarged group and Baxalta shareholders the remaining 37 per cent. The current bid is based on an all-stock consideration (allegedly for tax purposes), and the $45.23 per share offer represents a 36 per cent premium to Baxalta’s stock price on 3 August - the last day before news of the unsolicited bid emerged.
