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June 21, 2014

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AbbVie’s US$46b bid for Shire rejected

BRITISH drugmaker Shire has rejected a 27-billion-pound (US$46 billion) takeover offer from AbbVie, the latest bid by a US healthcare firm to tap into lower tax rates abroad via an acquisition.

Shire, which has no single controlling shareholder, has been seen as a prime takeover target for US drugmakers due to its attractive rare diseases business and its Irish tax base.

Saying its annual product sales are set to more than double by 2020 to US$10 billion, Shire rejected the 46.26 pounds per share offer as not reflecting its true value, despite the offer being at a 30 percent premium to its share price over the last month.

But analysts and one large shareholder said the firm may struggle to resist a bid of over 50 pounds per share.

“You can easily see other people coming for Shire now because it’s in a good space,” one of Shire’s 40 biggest shareholders said.

“Their pipeline is fantastic, it’s growing at 20 percent so for them (AbbVie) to offer 46 quid for that sort of growth profile we think is not enough. If they came back with 50-plus people would find it difficult (to say no) and that would be very sad.”

Founded in 1986 in Britain, Shire conducts most of its business in the US and has been domiciled in Ireland for tax purposes since 2008.

AbbVie’s takeover offer proposed creating a new US-listed holding firm with a tax domicile in Britain, where the government has also unveiled tax breaks to foster research and development.




 

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