“Given the amount of cash we generate and our ability to take on further debt, this does not put any restrictions of significance on our strategy to become a leader in the biotech area,” Chief Executive Officer Flemming Ornskov said in a telephone interview yesterday. “Obviously that will require further M&A.”
Shire is seeking to boost growth after its proposed $52 billion sale to AbbVie Inc. collapsed. The purchase is Ornskov’s seventh since his appointment as CEO was announced in October 2012, including the $4.2 billion acquisition of ViroPharma Inc. to add a treatment for a rare swelling disease.
Shire, based in Dublin, said yesterday it will pay $46 a share in
cash for NPS, a 9.8 percent premium to the closing price on Jan. 9. The offer is 50 percent more than Bedminster, New Jersey-based NPS’s share price on Dec. 16, before news broke of Shire’s interest. Both companies’ boards have approved the transaction.
NPS gives Shire Gattex, an approved treatment for short bowel syndrome, and Natpara, a drug for a rare and potentially fatal hormonal abnormality called hypoparathyroidism that is awaiting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The regulator is scheduled to make a decision by Jan. 24.
Flemming Ornskov, chief executive officer of Shire Plc, said in November that the... Read More
Share Performance
Shire rose 0.2 percent to 47.50 pounds as of 10:07 a.m. in London, giving the company a market value of 28 billion pounds ($42 billion). The stock has climbed about 27 percent since Oct. 16, when it plunged 28 percent in two days after AbbVie said it was reconsidering its offer. NPS rose to $45.60 in early U.S. trading.It was worth the risk to move ahead of the FDA’s Natpara decision, Ornskov said. Shire’s due diligence included looking at the correspondence with the FDA and, by moving early, Shire can also help with the drug’s introduction, he said.
NPS “fits right into what Shire wants to do and where they have infrastructure,” Stefan Quenneville, an analyst at Morningstar Inc., said in an interview.
Gattex will garner more than $300 million in sales in 2016, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg, complementing Shire’s existing stable of drugs for gastrointestinal diseases.
‘Full Price’
In biotechnology takeovers since the beginning of 2014, about one-third of the buyers paid a premium of 25 percent to 50 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.“It’s a full price for two commercially unproven assets,” Quenneville said.
Ornskov had said in November that the company was revisiting some of the deals it was considering before AbbVie’s (ABBV) abandoned takeover. Shire was considering a bid for NPS, Bloomberg News reported on Dec. 17, citing people familiar with the matter. Shire is based for tax purposes in Dublin, and Ornskov and other top executives work in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Acquisitions work best when they’re in a treatment area “you know very well,” he said, which for Shire includes rare diseases, gastrointestinal diseases and opthalmology, he said.
Calcium Deficiency
Natpara treats a rare disorder in which a diminished amount of parathyroid hormone causes calcium deficiencies, causing muscle pain, tingling, an inability to focus, and anxiety or depression. In extreme cases, it can cause seizures.Shire’s pipeline of experimental drugs will add $3 billion to revenue by 2020, and acquisitions may further boost sales, the company said on Dec. 10.
The NPS offer comes after Merck & Co.’s (MRK) $8.4 billion agreement to buy Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., which had also been a potential target for Shire.
Shire said it will fund the NPS deal through its cash resources as well as existing and new bank facilities. The company received a breakup fee from AbbVie of $1.64 billion, giving it extra cash for takeovers. Before today, the shares had risen 63 percent in London in 12 months.
The purchase should add to non-GAAP earnings starting in 2016, Shire said. The company reported adjusted net income of $2.93 per American depositary share for the third quarter in October, beating analyst’s estimates, while sales rose 32 percent to $1.6 billion. The drugmaker then raised its profit forecast a third time.
NPS reported an adjusted loss of 2 cents a share in the third quarter as sales climbed to $57.2 million.
Shire was advised by Citigroup Inc. and Lazard Ltd., as well as Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Slaughter & May. NPS worked with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Leerink Partners LLC, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
No comments:
Post a Comment