A maxi acquisition worth 52 billion euros. The Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda has reached an agreement that will allow it to take over the Irish giant Shire Plc for 46 billion pounds, equal to about 52 billion euros.
The operation represents a real record for Japan: it is the largest foreign acquisition ever made by a Japanese company. For Takeda, on the other hand, this is the fourth mega acquisition after those of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, a US oncological company, made in 2008, Ariad, a company specializing in anti-cancer therapies, and Nycomed, a Swiss biotechnology company, bought in 2011.
With the Shire wedding, Takeda could double its size, becoming the ninth largest group in the world in terms of annual turnover, with a total of about 28 billion dollars against the 13 billion billed by the Japanese pharmaceutical company.
The CEO of the Japanese giant, Christophe Weber, plans to finance the operation, amounting to 49 pounds per share, through the signing of a loan of almost 31 billion dollars.
Today's announcement, which will now have to go through shareholder meetings, caps a several-week long saga that has seen Shire reject several offers, deeming them inadequate in light of its growth prospects and portfolio of drugs in development.
The operation was disclosed after the closure of the Tokyo Stock Exchange where Takeda shares nevertheless gained 3,99%. Shire shares on the London Stock Exchange are up (+4,77%).
